Entwined Symphony
by Tama Saga
Summary: The clues are all there, the red hair, the spitfire tomboyish personality, acceptance of Naruto's name...Naruto's mother is Uzumaki Kushina! Poooo! You suck! Get off the stage loser! Gaah! Ranma 0.5 x Naruto Xover.
1. A tale to begin all tales

_The clues are all there, the red hair, the spitfire tomboyish personality, acceptance of Naruto's name...Naruto's mother is Uzumaki Kushina! Poooo! You suck! Get off the stage loser!_

∼Entwined Symphony∼  
by Tama Saga

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something fun.

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**Prologue: A slightly different beginning.**

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- The Present -

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A crowd surrounded a small boy with sunshine gold hair. Said boy was currently glaring at them as hard as he could as he tried his hardest to keep the tears at bay.

"Demon!"

"Die!"

The energy in the atmosphere rapidly ramped up. Soon the conflict wasn't going to be limited to just words.

And then, someone else was there the instant the first bottle was thrown.

"Get," the redhead growled to the crowd as she tightened her grip and shattered the thick green glass as easily as if she were crushing an aluminum can. "...lost."

She gave a disdainful snort and shifted out of the way of the incoming projectile when one of the civilians chose to spit at her in response. It splashed harmlessly to the ground.

The small group dispersed soon afterwards.

Bending down, the redhead grabbed the small blond boy in a motherly embrace. "Don't run off and scare me like that ever again, k?" she tenderly whispered.

"Kaasan," Naruto started tearing up before he grabbed her and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry," he blubbered over and over again.

Instead of replying, she picked her son up and held him. Once she was positive that he wasn't going to disappear on her again, she started heading home.

The bags of groceries that they were buying earlier were left sitting in the middle of the road.

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Omake, Ichi!

"Kaasan, can't breathe..." Naruto whimpered.


	2. Escape from Konoha?

_The clues are all there, the red hair, the spitfire tomboyish personality, acceptance of Naruto's name...Naruto's mother is Uzumaki Kushina! Poooo! You suck! Get off the stage loser!_

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

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**Chapter 1: Escape**

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- The Past -

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SHI SHI HOKOUDAN!

The massive green blast travelled slowly through the air, holding its form far longer than normal. It finally crashed into a tall peak, ripping the rock to shreds. That had been his most powerful yet.

Ryouga slowly fell to his knees, feeling empty.

He had believed that things would return to normal after the Saffron incident.

If only. Where he was normally able to keep up with Ranma, now he found himself outstripped with each passing day.

The first time he had returned, Ranma had pounded him into the ground before he could issue a challenge.

And the next time he returned...

"Hey Pig boy...umm yeah...look, about last time. I didn't realize I had run into you until I found the indent in the ground.

The bastard...

He was beginning to hate getting lost. Disappearing for long periods of time...when he finally got back he found Akane and Ranma getting along better and better.

He was losing. It just wasn't fair! While Ranma could stay in one place, leisurely practicing and having all the time in the world to capture the girl's heart, he was struggling to find a city, wasting valuable time in the process.

He hadn't been back for over a month now. And he was starting to dread this return.

How strong had the bastard become now? Did the bastard marry Akane yet? Would he lose before Ranma lifted a finger this time?

If only...if only Ranma got lost as much as he did. Then it would be fair, right?

_Lost..._

As the word bounced around in his head, hope started to appear in Ryouga's eyes as a plan slowly took shape.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Where is Nerima!" Ryouga shouted for the entire world to hear, a coil of rope wrapped around his waist.

"Yo Pig-boy. I see you finally found your way back." a cheerful voice said as its owner approached him from behind.

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- The Present -

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The thought of what would have happened if she hadn't gotten there in time was burned in her mind. So much so that she found herself standing before the esteemed Third Hokage the next day, once again asking for something that she had tried many times previous to obtain.

The venerable elderly man finally sighed. "Very well Kushina. If Naruto agrees, I will give you permission."

A large grin filled the redhead's face and she abandoned her supposedly newfound maturity to dash from the room.

When she left, a grin appeared on the Third's face as well. "Her heart is in the right place, but Naruto will refuse her offer. He's as stubborn as his mother and as determined as his father. It doesn't hurt that her tact needs a bit of work." He gave a small snort, "bit..." slowly placing his pipe on his desk, he started to chuckle.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma stood in front of the entrance to the apartment building that she shared with her son. Just the two of them in the three-story structure. They owned the entire thing after all since HE hadn't left her wanting for money.

She briefly contemplated just jumping up, she was supposed to be a nin after all...

...but she shoved her desires aside. Pulling the key from the back pocket of her pants, she unlocked the door and went in.

Naruto had wanted the two of them to live on the top floor.

She climbed the steps, one set and then another, before stopping at a barred door. Using a second set of keys, she opened it and entered the comfy two-room apartment that she shared with her son.

She gave a sigh when she saw the closed bedroom door. Naruto was hiding again.

After trying to lure him out with the promise of a nice hot lunch, to which he emphatically refused, she sweetened the deal by shouting out that she was making ramen.

The two were soon sitting together, waiting for the three minutes for the ramen to set, although...her stomach rumbled... she was tempted to start eating now.

She decided to get the ball rolling before she lost her nerve...

"Naruto?"

"Hmm?" her son grunted, not taking his eyes off of his cup.

"How would you like to leave Konoha?"

"I guess," he absentmindedly replied.

"So you agree?" she hastily asked.

Naruto turned to her with a suspicious look on his face. "Agree to what?"

She floundered for a moment before she grinned. "We're going to explore the world outside of Konoha!"

"..." Naruto thought about it for a moment. "Will it be fun?" he finally asked.

"Very!" she said giving one of her famous confident grins. "And we'll seek out new and amazing martial arts moves together!"

That clinched it. "This is so cool! I'll be the strongest in the academy!"

She coughed and looked away. "About that."

Naruto looked at her. "...?"

"We won't be coming back," she said with more confidence than she felt.

A confused look appeared on his face. "What do you mean, Kaasan?"

She was starting to worry about the success of this plan. "Once we leave, we won't return."

"..." Naruto was silent.

She tried to get his attention. "Naruto?"

"You're running away aren't you?" he accused.

She let out a hissing breath. "Naruto..." she warned as her eyes narrowed slightly.

She saw the stubborn set in his jaw.

"Naruto..." she tried again, gentler this time. Couldn't he see that she was doing this for him?

"Kaasan...did Tousan love Konoha?"

Her mouth opened and closed several times. "What?" She floundered. "That's not important," she finally responded.

"It is!"

"Naruto..." she quietly said, a hint of desperation in her voice as she felt her confidence unravel.

Naruto refused to let up. "Did he?"

She caved. "...Yes..."

"Would he leave if he knew the people were mean?"

She reluctantly shook her head.

"Then no. I won't leave until I find out why he wanted to stay with such mean people."

"C'mon Naruto. Please?" she begged. "I won't train you like my pops did. I sw-!" she immediately slapped a hand over her mouth and looked away.

"What do you mean?" her son asked, a bit too energetically.

"Nothing," She quietly whispered, wishing for him to drop the subject. There was a reason why she never went into her past.

When it was obvious that he wasn't going to learn anything new, she heard him stand up. "I won't leave!" he screamed at her before he ran back into his room. "I won't" the door slammed shut.

"..." she sat there and stared at the pair of ramen cups that sat untouched on the counter. They were ready.

A furious look appeared on her face. "You..."

After gulping down both cups in less than a second, she stomped into her room and threw open the closet. "You stupid idiot!" she growled, scowling up at the picture of the blond haired man hidden on the top shelf. "This is all your fault!"

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Did he agree?" The Third asked, when she reentered his office a few hours later with a scowl on her face.

She quickly replaced her hostile expression with a wide toothy smile. "Yes!".

"You're as horrible a liar as always, Uzumaki-san. Makes me wonder whether you were really a ninja of Whirlpool." the Third said with a serious look on his face.

Before she could gasp or say anything, the Third chuckled. "But that's just silly. Don't worry, I'm sure the paperwork from Whirlpool will come in soon."

She chuckled nervously and pulled a seat right up to the Hokage's desk before sitting down.

Of course he knew that she wasn't a nin, this was a small joke that they shared. In fact, many knew that she wasn't truly a nin, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of worry and fear every time the issue was brought up. She had other secrets that this one was barely shielding from view. If they pried...

She quickly quelched her emotions using the Soul of Ice before she laid down on the side of the desk opposite the Third, trusting the old man to keep the tall stacks of paperwork from falling on top of her.

The two sat there in silence, the Third running through a few more sheets of paperwork and Ranma relaxing for a moment.

She heard the old man put the pen down, and she tensed slightly. "So let me see...Naruto agreed at first. Then, when you told him that he would never be able to attend the academy, he shouted 'no' before running to his room and locking the door.

"Close," she commented as she lifted her head from the desk and gave him a mischievous grins before her face fell. "He also told me that he wouldn't leave the village without learning why his father loved this village. Even if it contained mean people."

Sarutobi gaped at her. "That's surprisingly mature."

A glaze covered her eyes, removing some of the life that usually danced in them. "I know. I love martial arts now, but it was rough when I was that young. It hurt and pops was always yelling at me...If I could, I would have given it up..."

The Third waited for her to finish what she had to say.

"...I just couldn't feel as strongly for something as Naruto at that age."

The Third looked solemn "You're right, it isn't normal."

She just sighed.

The Third gave her a reassuring smile. "Maybe you will have better luck keeping your son from the Academy?"

"...He'll find a way." she replied mirthlessly.

"You really shouldn't let your son walk all over you Kushina," the Third reprimanded her lightly.

"He's not," she angrily retorted, but they both knew that it wasn't true.

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A/N: My second try at a Naruto x Ranma xover. Writing for both sections has helped this story out lots if you ask me.

A/N: I don't suggest reading this story if you can't stand a little weirdness...you know, like a caravan of camels roaming the wild west in search of boots or something. You would see a toned down version of this example in both Ranma ½ and Naruto...much more so in Ranma. And I like it, so I fully intend to use it as much as I can. But I know that the nonsense kills some people's enthusiasm. Just a warning.

A/N: Oh shoot, I messed up. I have to declare this a major Naruto A/U. Ranma wasn't supposed to be here to watch over her son after the fox was sealed. But there was a story that I read in the past where Ranma was Iruka's father and he bravely charged at the nine-tailed fox with his wife while Iruka watched. I couldn't do that to Ranma. But this sort of means that I need to change Naruto's life a little.

A/N: Don't review if you don't want me to say something back to you. And if I don't reply in a day, prod me with a PM.

**Acknowledgements:**

**ToastedPine** for writing _Demiglace Grafitti._ It wasn't until I wrote a scene in the second chapter when I realized where I probably got my story idea from.

URL: www.fanfiction.‌net/s/3293331/1/


	3. A Memory of the Distant Past

_The clues are all there, the red hair, the spitfire tomboyish personality, acceptance of Naruto's name...Naruto's mother is Uzumaki Kushina! Poooo! You suck! Get off the stage loser!_

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

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**Chapter 2: A Memory of the Distant Past**

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Ranma, best martial artist of his generation, was currently resting...in a furo. It wasn't often that he allowed himself a nice hot bath. As he dozed lightly, he daydreamed.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_"Ryouga! Stop man!" she angrily shouted as she struggled to remain upright. She found herself jerked forward and off-balance once again when Ryouga just kept charging forward, not slowed down in the least by the dense foliage. The rope that was tightly bound around her wrist ensured that she followed, her lighter body and lower strength making it impossible for her to resist._

_Having had enough of being led around, she timed her next jump to coincide with an approaching tree trunk. Splintering the bark as she rebounded off of the solid wood, she flew forward, angling her attack so that her foot would connect with Ryouga's head. She sent him crashing into the ground._

_And then she stood there, waiting for her rival to stand up. He did._

_"This is the end of the line Ranma!" he roared as he turned to her with a scary glint in his eyes. Several nearby animals bolted when he started to laugh, a long eerie laugh that almost sounded like it was coming from madman._

_"Yo man...are you okay?" Ranma worriedly asked as she took a step forward. Her eyes bugged out, as she hurriedly leapt back an instant later._

_"Hah!" The sword, a belt stiffened by the iron cloth technique, easily sliced through the rope keeping the two of them fastened together._

_"You missed!" she jeered._

_Instead of getting the slightest bit angry like she had expected, Ryouga merely looked around. "I'm lost," he slowly said. He turned to Ranma, and she took a step back upon seeing the wild look in his eyes, the witty retort that she had dying on her lips._

_"I'm lost!" he shouted happily, "I've finally done it! I'm LOST!" he repeated one final time. "So long Ranma!" he shouted before he turned around and ran, laughing maniacally in the process._

_Ryouga had gone crazy. Ranma was so surprised that she froze for a fraction of a moment. She quickly recovered her wits and tried to chase after him to see what stupid plan he had come up with this time._

_Except Ryouga had turned right at a tree just up ahead, and when she arrived, he wasn't there anymore. Ryouga had gotten lost again. She cursed._

_It didn't take long for her to forget about Ryouga and look around. She was surrounded by trees. Trees everywhere, for as far as the eye could see. A sinking feeling slowly formed in the pit of her stomach. Leaping from the ground to the branches, she reached the top of a tree. Shoving a thin branch aside, she peered out. She couldn't see much from her spot, but there was a mountain in the distance. A higher vantage point would give her a better idea of where she was. Jumping down, she headed in that direction._

_Two days later, she was halfway up the mountain when she chanced a look behind her. A sea of green greeted her, and, as she scanned the treetops, she noted that there wasn't a sign of a town or village in sight. _

_"Dammit pig boy. You had to go crazy at the worst of times," she complained._

_Wait..._

_What had he shouted before he left. Wasn't it, 'I've finally done it!'_

_That was when the implications of what Ryouga had done struck her hard enough to knock her straight down the steep wall that she had been climbing. Ranma rolled to a stop at the foot of the mountain and stood up. _

_That bastard! He had deliberately stranded her in the middle of nowhere!_

_A loud emotional cry, one that denounced Ryouga's intelligence in three simple words, filled the air causing a large group of startled birds to leap from the trees and take flight._

_A day later, Ranma's stomach growled. The sound rebounded off of the solid walls and more birds immediately took flight. _

_Feeling exhausted and weary all of a sudden, she decided to sit down and rest. And as she slowly caught her breath, she couldn't help but feel a touch of admiration in her annoyance. Ryouga had really done it. He had managed to get rid of her._

_Well, she wasn't going to let him have the last laugh... _

_She raised her head. The roaring wind seemed to carry voices. She gave a mirthless laugh. She must have been really delirious from hunger. But...she strained to hear what they were saying..._

_"-aasan!"_

_Huh?_

-o-o-o-o-o-

The door jumped several times as whoever was behind it banged forcefully upon it.

"Kaasan! Get out of the bath before you faint!"

"Yeah yeah" he called out. He was starting to feel a little woozy, but he would never admit that to his son. He was about to step out when...

∗ Bang! ∗

He was so surprised to see the door burst open that he could only gawk at the intruder.

The two stared dumbly at each other before a scowl appeared on the blond boy's face, "I knew I heard you breathing!" Naruto venomously spat before he turned around.

"Naruto!" Ranma called out. But it was too late, his son had already left the bathroom.

Once it was clear that Naruto had returned to his room, Ranma guiltily stepped out from the furo and made his way over to the sink.

He hissed the instant the ice-cold water touched his comfortably-heated skin, forcing the transformation and raising goosebumps. Shivering slightly, she reached for a towel.

It saddened her a little that Naruto had never accepted her male form.

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Omake, Ichi!

Naruto stared at the steam wafting out of the bathroom. If there was hot water...that meant...

A quick plan formed in his head.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Kaasan, your phone. Hurry up and get it!"

"It never fails," he grumbled as he stepped out of the bathtub and prepared to splash cold water onto himself.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Shuffling over, she picked up the phone that was lying on the counter. "Moshi moshi?"

There was no one on the other end.

"Must have hung up," she grumbled as she shuffled back to the bathtub. Right before she stuck a foot in, she paused and stared at the water for a moment. Then, reaching forward, she tentatively stuck her hand in. Her eyes narrowed as everything fell into place.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"No Kaasan! No!" Naruto shouted as he kicked wildly, trying to break free. Ranma merely readjusted her grip before lifting him high above her head.

∼Sploosh!∼

"Aieee! Cold!" Naruto sputtered before he reared back and shoved a ton of water at her. "I hate you!"

Ranma wiped the water out of her eyes. "Yeah?" she growled before she grabbed the back of his head. "Well, hold your breath," she warned before she smirked and promptly dunked him before he had a chance to act on her advice.


	4. Departure

_I'm back!  
Welcome back! Do you have something to add Saga?  
What's this story about?  
..._

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

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**Chapter 3: Departure**

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- The Past -

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_The four of them had not realized they had entered a trap until a kunai landed in front of them. Because all battles between experienced nin were over in less than a moment, all nin would say that entering an ambush unprepared was death. _

_The small group was unprepared, and they were now enclosed in a circle and outnumbered three to one. There was no chance of escape. _

_They stood there, tense. Kunai were drawn and ready as they formed a circle facing outward to watch their comrade's back. _

_Someone said, "three." It was the number he planned to kill before he died. The commander immediately said "four." And Kushida warily said, "five." The other two laughed morbidly at such a bold claim from a rookie Jounin._

_The enemy nin slowly advanced, and the group fell silent. The three were waiting for HIM to respond._

_He reached into the pocket of his flak jacket and gambled. "All." he calmly said as the first enemy rushed into the clearing._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_There was the sound of steel drawn across flesh. Eerily enough, no shout of pain or agony followed it. The now-dead nin merely collapsed with a thump._

_The teen with blond spiky hair slowly wiped his Kunai on his opponent's clothes, removing the blood from the blade, before he stood up and surveyed the battlefield. Corpses laid everywhere. All of them had been unmarked. None were Konoha nin. But none were inexperienced either, he had several nicks on his arms and face when they reacted during the first field-test of his newest technique...he had barely dodged those in time._

_His comrades started cheering...but for what? He couldn't understand._

_They weren't home yet._

_Wherever these nin came from, there could be more hiding in wait. Now wasn't the time to celebrate._

_"Minato! C'mon and join the party! You're the guest of honor. It's not everyday we walk away from an ambush with everyone alive and well."_

_He gave the commander a small "friendly" smile before he turned back to the battlefield and narrowed his eyes. After one more inspection, he gathered his special kunai before turning around and following the others back to HQ._

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_- The Present -_

__

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Despite evidence of the contrary, the Hokage's office was not the biggest room in the tower. The honor belonged to the receiving room where foreign diplomats and other high ranking officials entered at least once whenever they visited the village. That didn't mean the Hokage's office was less important, it was just less ostentatious and far more comfortable. Two were currently inside, while a pair of guards and a secretary watched the entrance to the office from outside.

"You shouldn't do this Kushina." he warned.

"Do you promise?" She demanded again as she tried to put both hands on the desk and lean forward in an attempt to appear intimidating. The effect would have been lost if it weren't for the hint of steel in her voice.

He pulled sighed. "Very well."

The uncharacteristic look of seriousness remained on her face. "Old man, if I return and find one scratch on my son, there will be hell to pay. Got that?"

The Third calmly nodded, puffing away on his pipe as he pulled a sheet out from a nearby stack of unfinished paperwork, this time thankful for the neverending stacks giving him an excuse to ignore a guest.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto left his room and looked around. The apartment felt empty.

"Kaasan?"

It wasn't until he entered the kitchen when he found his first clue on her whereabouts.

It was a letter sitting upon the kitchen table.

Picking it up, he started to read the horribly messy scrawl...

_Dear Naruto,_

_..._

_..._

"Goddammit Kaasan!" he cried after several minutes of trying to decipher the chicken scratch. "Why can't you be a normal girl?!" He could live with the hearts replacing the dots and the large loopy lettering as long as he could read what it said for once.

There was a knock on the door.

Naruto padded over and unlocked it before pulling it open.

"The Third seeks your audience," the dog ANBU told him.

"?" Naruto couldn't help but wonder curiously about that. What did the Hokage want?

Signaling to the ANBU to wait for a moment, he returned to the kitchen and picked up the letter. There was only one person in known existence that could read his Kaasan's handwriting...

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma paused and stretched. She had missed the outdoors.

The air was fresh and clean.

There was plenty of sunshine.

Okay, maybe she could find that in Konoha. But out here she was free from her responsibilities.

Plus...

...she turned around.

"Well well, what have we here?" one of the men that had been following her for some time wisecracked to the rest of his group. "What's a sweet thing like you doing here?" He suddenly leered. "We'll escort you safely through this forest, for a price."

"Wait!" someone called out. "What if this is another guy in disguise?"

Several of the men turned a nice ugly shade of green while the leader turned around. "Get over it already! We made a mistake last time, but what guy has a rack like that?"

A cocky grin filled her face as she cracked her knuckles. "Me."

-o-o-o-o-o-

"What?! Old man, get your eyes checked!"

"That's what's on the letter, Naruto," the Third evenly replied. Inwardly, he was repressing the urge to smack the boy upon the head. Kushina was the worst possible influence on children, she even had her own son disrespectfully calling him old man. He was going to have a talk with her when she returned.

"So Kaasan left to explore a foreign country?" the blond boy suspiciously asked.

The Third nodded. "Yes, that about sums it up."

"And she didn't bring me along because she's mad at me for refusing to leave Konoha?"

"..." No words were needed. The Hokage's surprised look was more than enough confirmation.

"T-That old hag!"

-o-o-o-o-o-

The bandits approached slowly. Ranma remained relaxed, ready to react at a moment's notice. Both sides were eyeing each other warily, waiting for some signal to start combat.

Ranma suddenly brought her hands up to her face and sneezed.

She barely had time to duck when a large crude axe passed overhead a moment later. "Dammit!" she cried as she slapped the attacker with her dirty hands before burying her foot in his gut.

She immediately used her newfound foothold to bring her other foot forward, kicking the guy in the chin as she backflipped off of him.

Landing upon an extended sword, she turned and kicked the wielder in the head before leaping down and punching the ground hard enough to leave a crater that was wide enough to knock several of her other opponents off of their feet.

The fight had begun...

-o-o-o-o-o-

"She's angry! She's trying to punish me. Well I won't give her the satisfaction of seeing me break," Naruto growled.

"Naruto, calm down," the third urged.

A thought seemed to appear and Naruto soon started to hyperventilate. "Who..."

The Third looked questioningly at the boy. "Who?"

"Who did you send with her?" he squeaked out.

"No one. She wished to travel alone."

"What?!" Naruto roared. "How could you you old man?! I've got to find her."

"Naruto!" Naruto didn't stop. "Stop him!" The Third shouted to the guards at the door.

One of the guards at the entrance nabbed the boy before he could pass.

"Hey! Lemme go!" Naruto cried as he struggled to break free of the guy holding him by the collar.

"Bring him back and return to your station," the Third ordered. He winced when Naruto was brought in and unceremoniously tossed to the ground.

"Old man! Where'd she go?" Naruto said as he stood up and prepared to leave again. By the window if the direction of his gaze were any indication. The Third paused at that...his office didn't have a window. What was the boy planning?

"Naruto, she'll be fine."

"No she won't!" the blond boy shot back.

The Third suddenly chuckled. "You two...Naruto, I believe you should know that she demanded that I personally watch over you and protect you from harm. She was just as worried that someone would attack you while she was away."

Naruto gaped at the Hokage like he had suddenly developed two heads. "T-That's bull!"

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma was surrounded by a ring of groaning bandits. They weren't going to get up anytime soon. She cracked her knuckles and turned to the last of them.

"They were a bit weaker than I had expected," the tall ponytailed man with a large scar on one side of his face frowned before he stepped forward. "You'll find that I'm not as weak as those other fools."

Ranma suddenly felt the urge to sneeze again.

"Achoo!"

She barely managed to avoid the tacklehold that would have shattered her leg bone had it connected. "Gaah! Dammit!" she cursed as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

Ducking down under the wayward knife swing, she kicked him as hard as she could in the chin. Her opponent spun uncontrollably as he flew away.

The ground shook slightly when he collided with a tree. He sat up and spit out a tooth.

Ranma eyed him warily...

And then she lost sight of him when she sneezed again. Before she could recover, she soon found the breath knocked out of her as she was tackled from behind and sent sprawling to the ground.

As she struggled to throw the man off of her, she couldn't help but feel annoyed at the timing. Why was she falling sick now of all times?!

That was when she felt something latch onto a rather prominent part of her body. It squeezed.

A loud, unmistakably female, cry of rage filled the air. Another cry soon followed, this one was even louder and even more higher pitched.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

A/N:

It's really weird, all I really did was mess up and give Naruto a mom. And now everyone's shouting that Ranma wouldn't willingly sleep with a guy. Of course he wouldn't!

**Acknowledgements:**

**Genius of Konoha** by _mrriddler_. It's not everyday nins walk away from an ambush. This story is where that claim in the beginning came from.


	5. The Departure, Cut Short

_Saga!  
Hmm...your quality has improved.  
We need a good line to introduce this chapter.  
It started with a bang?  
I did that already...  
Ah..._

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something amusing.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

**Chapter 4: The Departure, Cut Short**

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

_He couldn't help but tense at each shadow that appeared on the dimly candlelit walls of the small dingy bar. To reduce some of his paranoia, he tried to focus on his cup while his party members celebrated._

_"Did you see? The instant those strange kunai flew into the air, he was moving so fast that we couldn't see him."_

_"13 nins! They all died just like that!"_

_"We walked out of an ambush. None of us died! It's almost unheard of!"_

_The leader of the team threw a companionable arm around their youngest member. "We all owe our lives to this guy! When we get back to Konoha, I'll make sure that he's promoted to Jounin or my name ain't Roy."_

_"Three cheers!"_

_"Hip hip, hooray!" the other two shouted._

_The last member of the party looked around warily, making sure no one was listening too closely. His entire team was drunk and spouting potentially dangerous information. If one of the patrons made the connection that they were from Konoha, there would be little chance of survival this time._

_A redheaded teenager suddenly paused in the center of the room and whistled loudly to catch everyone's attention._

_And that was when things started haphazardly flying from the kitchen._

_Twisting this way and that, she managed to catch a group of bowls, plates, and their associated silverware using both hands, an elbow, and her head. She leaned back when one more bowl barreled out and, right before it hit the ground, she caught it with a foot._

_"Order up!" she shouted before bringing her elbow up and launching the small plate into the air. Tossing the plates in her hands in random directions, she kicked upwards with her foot, launching the bowl up and onto an extended finger where it spun for a few seconds. Just as it was slowing to a stop, she threw it aside and reached up to pull the neatly balanced bowl off of her head._

_She graciously presented the final dish to the customer seated right next to her before she bowed._

_The bar patrons suddenly clapped and cheered loudly when they realized that all of the dishes that had seemed to fly off in random directions had landed in front of the correct customer without spilling a drop._

_It was obvious that she knew her body well. Better than many nin, he observed as he studied her closely..._

_...or rather, him. The center of balance was wrong, but the waitress' gestures and movements were predominantly male._

_Sensing someone watching him, his eyes flicked over to his companions. What did they want?_

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_The leader of the team suddenly banged his large glass down on the table. "Looks like our hero is interested in someone. She's such a cute thing ain't she? Great chest, nice ass. How about it, let's get Minato a girl?" the leader guffawed._

_The other two drunks cheered enthusiastically. Only the best for their hero._

_"Minato, as your commanding officer, I order you to sleep with her." _

_Minato looked up. "Sleep with her, sir?" he repeated in an emotionless voice._

_Tanaka spoke up. "You know, spend a night with a lady. Make her scream like a wildcat. That sort of stuff." _

_Minato briefly wondered why his teammate was winking so much before he considered the parameters of the mission. They were peculiar for an interrogation assignment, especially given the current situation, but orders were orders. He stood up, "Mission accepted."_

_The others stopped laughing._

_And then the group watched in stupored surprise as he walked up to her and caught her attention._

_After hearing what he had to say, she narrowed her eyes and said..._

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Present -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

"Welcome to Konoha." the gate guard said with a bored nasally voice as he returned the passport with a nice picture of the redhead in front of him. "Please hand your prisoner over to the nearest nin before you enter."

Ranma immediately pointed and shouted, "Oi! You!"

The black-haired red-eyed woman who was quietly standing beside the wall immediately perked up. She looked around for a moment before pointing at herself.

"Yeah, you. You're Kurenai right?"

At her shy nod, Ranma continued. "Help me with this, will'ya?"

"O-okay Uzumaki-sama," the chuunin responded as she came over and stood beside Ranma's cargo.

"Thanks! Take him to the interrogation building as soon as possible. The bastard doesn't stay still for long and he might run if he breaks free of the ropes," the redhead carelessly said before she walked off.

"?" Confused at that last comment, Kurenai looked down at the tightly-bound package.

That's when the bundle started to squirm.

Kurenai squeaked and backed up several steps. "I-it's still alive!"

-o-o-o-o-o-

She threw her battered knapsack down in a corner of the apartment and gave a large huff before heading to the kitchen.

Bastard didn't have to squeeze that hard she stormily thought as she pulled a pink frilly apron from off the hook. She winced when the fabric of her shirt was pressed against her skin as she put on the apron. It still hurt even now.

An hour later, a door clicked as it unlocked, and a blond boy pushed it open and slowly trudged inside.

"Hey Naruto, want a snack?" she greeted, as she came out with a cup of ramen.

"..."

"Naruto?" she asked worriedly when he didn't answer.

"You're back," the blond boy calmly said, proving that her worries were unfounded.

"Yeah, so?" she asked wincing slightly as she removed her apron.

"Why did you leave?"

Ranma hung up her apron, only now noting that it was the pink one. "I was bored." she absentmindedly replied as she glowered at the garment in front of her with distaste.

"Why did you come back?"

Ranma stopped staring at the garment and turned around with a weak grin. She started to scratch a cheek with a finger. "There's a funny story to that actually," she said before she stared innocently up at the ceiling. "See, I kept sneezing as I beat up bandits just outside the walls. So I thought I was coming down with somethin' and decided to come home and recover a bit before I set out again."

She finally looked down at her son. "But then, on my way back, I stopped sneezing. Funny huh?"

Her eyes widened and she quickly got down on one knee to catch her son who was stumbling awkwardly toward her, wincing slightly when one of her knees pressed upon a sensitive spot. And then she felt a pair of arms thrown around her neck.

"Kaasan, I'm sorry!"

"Hey hey, why are you cryin' this time? You're stronger than that Naruto," Ranma quietly whispered as she pat him lightly on the back.

Naruto kept mumbling "my fault," over and over again.

Ranma wasn't listening. She was examining what appeared to be a small cut on Naruto's arm.

"Dammit old man," she cursed as she angrily pushed her son aside and started for the window.

"No!" Naruto shouted, grabbing a hold of her sleeve.

"Naruto?"

"Please don't leave me. Not yet."

Ranma wanted to go beat up the old man, but...she looked down at her son and sighed before a smile graced her face as she placed her hand upon his head. She crouched down and gave her son one of her famous cocky grins. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

Naruto slowly relaxed and started to lean in when there was a loud bang. He fell forward in surprise, incidentally wrapping both arms around her neck, his chin coming to rest upon her shoulder.

The two quickly realized the awkward position that they were in, and how it could be taken by whoever had entered the front door; they quickly pushed away from each other and turned to stare at rather uninteresting spots on the wall.

"Jyajiang! Super Chuunin Mitarashi Anko is here!" the intruder shouted from around the corner. "Hey Shina-chan! There's a new buffet in the area and I heard that they have the best-" it suddenly fell silent.

"Don't you ever knock?!" Ranma irritably asked when Anko appeared.

"Is that dango that I smell?" the chuunin asked without the slightest hint of an apology on her face.

Irritation gave way to surprise. "W-what?! N-no! Of course not!"

Naruto detected the lie almost before it left his mother's lips. "You were going to hog it all for yourself weren't you?" he accused. His eyes were surprisingly dry. There was no evidence that he had been crying earlier.

"I was gonna save some for-" she slapped a hand over her mouth when she realized her mistake.

"Well then, out with it lady! Share the wealth!" Anko demanded before she paused. A thought had just occurred to her. She slowly turned to Naruto with narrowed eyes. "Ey little guy, escort her in and watch her like a hawk. If she snitches any, spank her."

"What?! Th-There's no need. You can trust me. Right Naruto?" when there was no reply, she turned to her son. "Right?"

Her face fell when she saw Naruto with a hand against his forehead.

"Yes ma'am," he saluted before he leaned all of his weight against his mother.

"Naruto you traitor!" she cried before she was forced into the kitchen.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

Omake! Ichi!

A month ago...

"Anko! What are you doing here?"

"I heard you made dango," Anko said before turning slightly and winking to someone that was standing off to the side.

"I...did?" Ranma asked innocently before giving her son a dirty look.

"Don't lie, I can smell it from a mile away. Now bring it out."

"..." Ranma hung her head. "Fine."

She came out a few minutes later with a large tray and only a few dumplings surrounding the center. "I didn't make many to begin with." she said with a sheepish expression.

Both Anko and Naruto were unamused. "Ey...little guy...I seem to recall that your mom beat the Akimichi's in a speed eating contest."

"If you're thinking about that time where she finished her 'small'" he said this with a disgusted look, indicating that it was anything but small, "portion in the first minute before devouring the food set aside for the other five under the five minute time limit, then yeah, that trophy is on the bookshelf in the living room."

"How long was she gone?"

"I dunno..." Naruto replied with a shrug.

Anko thought about it for a moment before she started to ask. "Was it enough time..."

Naruto quickly caught on. "...to finish the dumplings that were never made? Yea."

"Thought so. I'll hold her down, you check her teeth."

"Roger."

"H-hey, wait..." Ranma whimpered as she slowly retreated to the kitchen.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

So uhh...why was the crowd impressed with Ranma's antics even though there were nin present in the crowd.  
Well...1...what ninja shows off by doing something so useless? Can you kill people by dancing with plates?  
2...ninjas require knowledge in other fields such as handsigns and weapons. They don't train their body as much as Ranma does, so they're not as flexible or as balanced.  
3...only Taijutsu specialists can pull off what Ranma did.

I can tell you this right away, Minato might be good, but he's not that good. At least, not yet.

Hint hotline! There are two reasons that I can see for why Naruto is being so disrespectful.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Acknowledgements:**

Correct! Have a cookie, **Kirako**!

_A Twist of Fate_ by **LD 1449**. Chapter 33 is where I saw the coolest interpretation of how the Fourth used his thunder god jutsu.


	6. The Troubles with Eating Out

_Saga, your time to shine.  
You want a title, right?  
Yeah.  
SimAnt  
You're joking, right?_

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

**Chapter 5: The Troubles with Eating Out**

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

_He stood there, plotting his next course of action._

_He had no idea why the commander wanted information from that man disguised as a woman, but the commander had given him the task and he was determined to complete it. _

_It looked like this was going to be a problem however..._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_Two nins recognized the nondescript man, walking down the winding path, as one of their own. They jumped out from the trees and confronted him with Kunai drawn._

_"Well well well, an unknown nin in our territory."_

_"I was reassigned from the third sector, sir," came the reply._

_The other two looked surprised. "Has our request for more hands been approved? Where is your commanding officer?"_

_"He's dead sir," was the prompt answer._

_All three of them suddenly relaxed._

_"Did you get it?"_

_There was an imperceptible nod from the first nin before he shifted slightly so that the barest edge of a scroll flickered out from the deep pocket of his trenchcoat, the other two grinned. _

_"Secondary Mission complete," Roy, the leader said. "Let's pack up and head home."_

_"Hey, where's Minato." someone asked._

_"Probably seeing that girl again." the one in the trenchcoat answered._

_"Poor guy, he doesn't take rejection well. "_

_"I don't think he even felt the rejection..."_

_"Then why did he walk up to you and ask for your advice after the first time she said no? What did you say to him anyway?"_

_"Oh, I told him to give her a flattering compliment."_

_"Didn't she sucker punch him afterwards, knocking him into a high-stakes card game."_

_"..." the other two knew that that wasn't a sucker punch._

_"That was my first bar fight ever."_

_"Good technique with the bar stool," Roy complimented, "but we're getting off-topic here. Let's go fetch him. We need to return as soon as possible."_

_"Roger."_

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_"I don't see him. Or that girl from last night."_

_He assessed the situation before he turned to the other two. "We'll split up and ask around." The other two nodded at the command and the three parted._

_Roy walked up to a young girl whose black hair was done up in a ponytail. She was busy wiping down a table when he asked, "Excuse me, where is that redhead waitress?" _

_"She left this morning," was the cold response. He sensed a hint of jealousy in her voice._

_"What do you mean?" _

_The girl suddenly looked up and a seductive grin appeared on her face, making him feel wary. "Why are you so interested in her anyway?"_

_Before he could voice a reply, another voice caught their attention._

_"Guys," Kushida, the rookie of the group beckoned. He quickly walked over, leaving the girl behind. He was dimly aware that she had returned to her work with a huff. Suzu arrived moments later, and the three of them quickly made their way to a secluded spot. Glancing around to make sure that no one was listening in, Roy nodded to his subordinate to continue._

_"I found out that from the manager that the redhead was a traveler who he picked up a week ago. She was only working here to earn some money so that she could continue on her journey."_

_"Do you suppose Minato followed her?"_

_"No...I don-...wait. Captain, what did you tell him last night?"_

_He shook his head. "I don't remember."_

_"Neither do I..." the rookie responded._

_But Suzu had a pensive look on his face. "I seem to recall you saying, 'I order you to', but I don't remember what you said next."_

_"..." They fell silent, digesting the news._

_"She was cute wasn't she?" Kushida spoke up._

_"I think so." Suzu replied. "Although she moved like a man..."_

_"It can't be a coincidence." Kushida concluded, not hearing Suzu's afterthought._

_"Crap." Suzu immediately responded, summing up their thoughts as they realized where Minato had gone._

_"Let's head back. Not a word of this to anyone. Minato died on this mission," Roy immediately ordered. "This is my fault, I'll take responsibility."_

_"Whether he takes responsibility or not, Jiraiya-sama is going to kill all of us..." Suzu whispered to Kushida behind their leader's back._

_Kushida was completely white. "Kami-sama..."_

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

The Third looked up from his paperwork when someone quietly padded into the room.

"Naruto? You're looking well today. I trust no one gave you trouble on your way over?"

The blond boy coolly nodded.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? If it's about your mother, the gate guards have already notified me of her return."

"That's not why I'm here."

"Then...?" the Hokage questioningly asked.

"Anko-neechan stayed over last night, Hokage-jisan. Kaasan and neechan left this morning to find something to eat," the small boy reported.

The current-Hokage nodded to show that he was listening, but he didn't quite understand what Naruto was trying to say.

"Together." the blond boy finally added.

The Third paled. "Alert the Police Force!" he shouted.

"Alert the Uchihas," someone echoed from outside.

-o-o-o-o-o-

A pair of young ladies were wandering through the busy streets of Konoha's outdoor marketplace.

"Tell me again why I'm blindfolded?!" the redhead shouted, trying to be heard through the din of the crowd.

"Because if you knew how to get to this buffet, it'd disappear before I had a chance to eat there a second time!" Anko shouted back equally as loudly.

"Will you at least let me eat without a blindfold this time?!" Ranma growled.

"I'll think about it!" Anko shouted back.

-o-o-o-o-o-

In the end, Anko did allow Ranma to remove her blindfold. The sight that greeted the two was nothing exceptional. A clean building with white walls, dim yellow lighting, and small pebble patterned decorations on the wall.

The host that greeted them was a clean-shaven black-haired man wearing a nice suit.

"Table for two?" he asked. At their nod, he pulled out some menus and gestured down a long aisle. "Right this way."

Just as they were about to leave the table and attack the large spread laid out in a cleared area several tables down, a well-dressed gentleman appeared. He was accompanied by two tall large nin, his hired bouncers.

Excuse me," he said. "We have reason to believe that one of you is the One-We-Dare-Not-Speak-Of. The one with the ability to finish a buffet's entire foodstock in one sitting.

Ranma opened her mouth but Anko beat her to it. "Is this how you treat all of your customers?" she demanded angrily.

"What? No."

"I'm going to tell you right now that neither of us are who you are looking for."

"But the descriptions."

"A stunning redhead and a crazy-looking woman, right?" Anko asked, gritting her teeth when she described herself.

The manager was surprised. "Almost. The crazy-looking woman was supposed to be a crazy-looking girl but-"

Anko was outraged. "What?! Shina-chan looks younger than me!"

"So it is one of you."

Anko was about to respond when a hand was slapped over her mouth. "Shush!" Ranma hissed before she turned to the three and prepared to prove their innocence.

"How can you tell?" That was...totally smooth. Yeah. Very convincing. Whose side was she on anyway?

Anko knocked Ranma's hand away before burying her face in her hands.

Ranma tried once more. "Er...ah, I mean, we're not the ones you're looking for," she said with a weak grin and a casual pass of her hand.

The three were surprisingly, at least to Ranma, unconvinced. "Which one of you is the One-We-Dare-Not-Speak-Of?"

Anko pulled her face out of her hands. "You mean you're not kicking us both out?"

"Of course not, attractive females bring in the profits," he said in a greedy manner. "Now which one is the one we want to get rid of."

"Her!" Both girls shouted as they pointed at each other.

The manager looked between the two before pointing at the taller one. "She's the one, throw her out."

The other two nin nodded and lumbered forward.

"What, hey?!" Anko shouted as they seized her arms.

Ranma grinned and waved. "See you tonight Anko-chan! I'll let you know how the food is like"

Anko narrowed her eyes. "Kushina, you-"

There was a loud anguished shout. "No!"

Everyone turned to see who had shouted. The good cheer fell from Ranma's face as she recognized him as the owner of a buffet that she had eaten at a week ago.

"That's the wrong one!"

"Who are you?"

"Tomobi Ryu, I used to own the golden dragon. Until SHE came along." he shouted as he pointed at Ranma.

"The redhead? She's so small."

"That's what I thought! And then she walked out half an hour later and most of my stock was gone. If she was hiding it, it wasn't under the tank-top and shorts that she was wearing that day."

The manager now had a choice, to believe the owner of a now bankrupt buffet, or to trust his own intuition.

"Take her away." he finally ordered, and the two nin nodded and started to drag a protesting Anko toward the door.

Before Ranma could cheerily wave again, another voice rang out. "You're making a mistake!" a man stood up and threw off a large straw hat before removing his trenchcoat.

Ranma paled once again. She recognized him too.

"And you are?"

"Suzumu Hoshi, I used to own the Dastardly Pearl."

"The redhead?"

"Yes."

"Hmm..." the manager said as he reevaluated the situation.

"Stop!" a woman called out.

"What is it with the bankrupt buffet owners showing up today?" the manager demanded.

"To save you from a fate worse than death!" the woman shouted as she pulled down her hood.

Ranma didn't bat an eye. She didn't recognize this newcomer.

"Name?" the manager asked impatiently.

"Minami Rei, ex-owner of that building down the street that used to be a dango buffet."

"Well, who was it," the manager demanded.

Rei pointed at the girl who was currently held between the two bouncers. I only saw her come in, but I lost everything by the time she walked out."

"You went to a buffet without me?!" Ranma shrieked.

"They had dango!" Anko protested.

"You-"

"But, I've seen that girl eat," Rei interrupted pointing at the redhead. "and she can outeat the entire Akimichi clan."

The manager's large basslike mouth flapped up and down. "Surely you're joking."

"She's not!" someone else shouted as he stood up. "I'm-"

"Shut up. Don't bother." the manager dismissively said before he turned to his bouncers. "Remove the redhead."

The two burly men suddenly let go of Anko and moved to grab Ranma. "Don't even think about it," Ranma angrily commanded as she casually batted their hands away. "I'll leave." The men immediately backed away, the power contained within her small frame was unmistakable.

"What about me?" Anko took the chance to ask.

A wordless exchange took place between the ex-buffet owners and the manager before they turned to Anko. "You're turning out to be troublesome, but you can stay. However, I reserve the right to charge you extra if you eat an excess of dango."

Anko suddenly grinned and turned to her soon-to-be-ex companion. "Heh, I'll let you know what the food is like. Later Shina-chan∼"

Strangely, instead of anger, an upset look developed on Ranma's face. She slowly lowered her head.

"A-Anko! You're always busy..." she whispered. "Today was supposed to be our day out." She looked up and everyone saw the fat tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "Y-You couldn't possibly be thinking of making me wait alone out there, would you?!"

The dango fanatic was completely unmoved. Kushina did this all the time after all. "Yeah I would," she replied as she calmly picked her ear with a pinky.

Ranma started crying. "Y-You're so cruel," she sobbed pathetically. "How could you do this to me?"

It looked so fake that the crowd ate it up.

"What kind of friend are you?!" one of the customers demanded. "Friends are supposed to stick together."

There was a chorus of "yeah's".

Now Anko was embarrassed. Walking over, she leaned in and hissed, "How old are you?! Don't you have any pride?"

Ranma showed no signs of hearing, and definitely no signs of stopping. Anko finally gave an annoyed huff. "Fine fine. Let's go somewhere else to eat."

The waterworks suddenly stopped and Ranma stretched and grinned before throwing a companionable arm across her friend's shoulder. "Where to" she lazily asked, waiting several moments before adding "sucker."

"Damn you." Anko whispered back.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Omake!

"Well well well, if it isn't the One-that-Buffet-Owners-Dare-Not-Speak-Of coincidentally standing outside of the newest buffet in Konoha." a large man dressed in formal wear called out. Behind him were a group of somewhat less large men and women, but still rather large.

"Hiya Chouza," Ranma said, regretfully staring up at the sign with golden lettering for 'The Three Mountains.'

Anko raised a hand. "Yo." she greeted as well.

"Are you ready to compete, I've discovered another Akimichi with potential."

"Maybe later, they just kicked us out."

Chouza raised an eyebrow. "Did they now?" he turned around and the group that was following him nodded and dispersed. "I believe my entire family suddenly wishes to visit a buffet for lunch, and I do hope they serve good food, or Konoha will know by tomorrow of how a respectable clan was mistreated."

"Am I invited?" Ranma asked in a hopeful tone of voice.

Chouza suddenly laughed, a long loud bellyful laugh, "Good joke." he finally said, wiping the tears out of his eyes.

Ranma had an expectant look on her face that almost bordered pleading.

All traces of mirth disappeared from the Akimichi's face. "Of course not. No amount of reputation will keep us inside if we took you along."

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Truthfully, I don't care if I get a ton of negative reviews. As I've told a few people already, the negative reviews are useful for scaring away the readers until I can build a sizeable story using only short chapters.

Here's a Puzzle for ya! Can you figure it out before it happens?

Hinata's Birthday: December 27  
Hanabi's Birthday: March 27  
Sakura's Birthday: March 28  
Naruto's Birthday: October 10

I've taken the time to sort them in order for you. BTW, your first guess will be wrong. Although I'd really like to know how I would be able to pair Naruto with himself. I do know a way actually...I've done it before. But still, your guess will be WRONG! And even if you can figure out why I'm listing this, I'm pretty certain you'll never guess why Naruto is listed.

Funnily enough, Naruto isn't spoiled. At least if I'm reading my notes correctly. That doesn't mean he's not acting like a brat. If you knew the reasons why however, you'd think he was a complete idiot. They make sense but...well, here's a hint...one of them is tragic, the other is just plain stupid.

I'm not sure when the Chakra issue is coming up...it should be soon, and it's going to anger a lot of people.

**Acknowledgements**

**Terrabull –** Good questions.

Ah, you're in luck **Kirako**. I happen to love macadamia in chocolate chip cookies, and I hate plain chocolate chip. Have the leftovers, they're a bit stale but...


	7. Don't Forget your Wallet

_What was wrong with SimAnt. I thought it was clever.  
...Saga...this is the time when you say just kidding.  
You sound like you have a death wish..._

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

**Chapter 6: Don't Lose Your Wallet**

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

_She stopped and turned around._

_"That's it." she muttered. Enough was enough. She had tried to ignore him, but his persistence was wearing on her nerves. She was going to have to make sure he stopped following her._

_Throwing down her large backpack, she stood there and waited._

_She sensed him approach a little more before he stopped and tried to hide himself away._

It was fruitless, her sensitive Ki senses allowed her to sense where he was hiding.

_"..."_

_"Come on out," she hollered._

_There was no movement._

_Fine, if that was how he wanted to play. She warily moved forward. She didn't know what he could do yet._

_Several steps in, her danger sense flared. She immediately threw herself to the side, dodging the slash from her right flank. There was a glimpse of yellow in her field of vision before it disappeared and all went silent again._

_She stood there for a moment, focusing on her senses and trying to discern his new position. _

_There._

_As she approached his new hiding spot, a question plagued her. He had been hiding right in front of her. How was he able to reach her side without her seeing him?_

_Her danger sense flared once again. Heeding its warning, she ducked, pivoted and tried to counterattack. _

_Her kick met only air._

_"You coward!" she shouted angrily. There was no reply._

_This time when she tried to sense his position, she found that he was appearing in spots all around her. Front, back, left, right, back again._

_She slowly backed up in confusion and looked around warily in all directions. There was no way anyone could move so quickly._

_And then she swung around. _

_Amaguriken!_

_Over a hundred punches lashed out and slammed into her opponent's chest in the blink of an eye._

_Then she gasped when the body that she was punching suddenly became a log. Her danger sense flared again and she threw herself forward, avoiding the knife slash that would have sliced through her hamstring had it connected. _

_Her opponent wasn't moving anymore. He was just standing in his spot. She turned to see him. "You!" _

_It was that pervert from the bar._

_"You've figured it out." he coolly said._

_"If you mean those weird dagger thingies all over the place, then yes I have," she cockily replied._

_Before her surprised eyes however, he suddenly disappeared._

_It didn't take a genius to know where he had gone. And by the time her sixth sense flared, she was already leaping out of her spot. _

_The sharp edge of his dagger still connected however, tearing a gash into the sleeve of her shirt and drawing blood._

_She gasped and grabbed her arm as the sting of pain made itself known._

_How?! There wasn't even a knife on the ground behind her!_

_She quickly looked around, before throwing herself to the side once again, once more avoiding a debilitating injury. _

_Her opponent was already gone before she could retaliate._

_"Give up and come with me." a cold voice ordered from out of nowhere._

_She flicked her nose. "Feh, fat chance." _

_After dodging the next strike, she ran to a tree and springboarded off of the trunk and high into the air._

_One of the specialties of the Saotome School of Anything Goes was aerial combat. As one of its exclusive practitioners with a high degree of mastery, moving in air was almost as simple as maneuvering on solid ground. After dodging the knife strike, she slammed several blows into her opponent's back before cupping her hands together._

_"Mokou Takabisha!" It struck him._

_She blanched as she watched him swan-dive toward the ground. If he hit the ground like that, he was going to die from a broken neck._

_She immediately angled herself accelerated downwards, trying to outpace his rate of fall._

_Apparently she was worried for nothing. Right before he struck the ground, he turned into a log. It shattered on impact, throwing wood splinters everywhere._

_"Damn!" she cried as she landed lightly and cast her awareness around._

_...she finally found him, but he was fading away as he quickly moved out of range of her senses._

_"Get back here you coward!" she shouted dashing after him._

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Present -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Gyuuu∼

"I'm hungry."

"Then why don't we go to your place?" Anko suggested.

"Only if you do the cooking," the redhead irritably sniped back.

Anko dropped the suggestion right then and there.

The two walked silently for a few minutes before...

Gyuu∼

Ranma's stomach had made itself known again.

"Can't you shut it up."

"I'm a growing girl," the redhead defensively replied. "I need to eat."

Anko immediately chuckled and placed her hand upon her companion's head. "Yeah, I think you need several more centimeters...but I don't think food is going to help." she shouted loudly before she pressed downward with all of her weight.

"...S-shut up!" Ranma shouted as she struggled to shove Anko off of her.

"Heh. So how about that place that we ate at last time?"

Ranma was a bit hesitant about the suggestion. "Umm..."

"What is it?"

"There's something important about that place, but I can't seem to remember what."

Anko shrugged. "It's fine, c'mon."

-o-o-o-o-o-

"You!" someone shouted the instant they stepped inside. "Somebody stop them!"

The two took a step backwards and out the door.

"Right! Didn't we skip out on paying because I left my wallet at home?" Ranma asked.

"God, Shina! Remember this stuff earlier!" Anko moaned before she turned around. "Run!"

-o-o-o-o-o-

Both girls stopped and ducked into a dark corner. It was a testament to their fitness when they weren't even winded from the chase.

"Think we lost them?"

Both of them listened for a moment. "I think so." Ranma finally responded before she left the corner and looked around. She looked up. "How about here?"

"The Seven Lucky Dragons? Haven't heard of this place before."

"That's good."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The food turned out to be quite nice. Unfortunately, they should have heeded the high-class appearance of the restaurant.

It began with the waiter coming by with the check.

After glancing at the large total, Anko looked at Ranma. "You're paying this time, right?"

"It's your turn!" Ranma countered forcefully.

"Aww c'mon, I haven't been given any missions lately and you're loaded." Anko quickly said. "I'll pay you back, I promise."

"..." Ranma stared skeptically at the young adult sitting across from her.

"C'mon, bills suck! I paid the last of them yesterday but I have nothing left."

"...fine." Ranma agreed with a huff before she reached into her pocket. She poked around for several moments.

"..."

"What's the matter?" Anko reluctantly asked.

"I think I left my wallet at home...again," Ranma weakly chuckled.

"You're kidding. Again?"

"You were supposed to pay this time!" The redhead hotly defended.

Anko huffed before she leaned in and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Plan B?"

"Plan B." Ranma agreed as she slid under the table and appeared on Anko's side.

"Ahem."

Both women turned to look at the impatiently waiting WAITRESS

This could be bad.

"What happened to the waiter?" Anko slowly asked.

"His shift was over," was the prompt reply. "Are you going to pay or not?"

Apparently Plan B crashed and burned before it even left the hangar. Without consulting her seatmate, Ranma immediately went to Plan C.

"She's about to fight! Security!" someone shouted.

"What are you doing?!" Anko frantically whispered as she shrunk away from the blue aura that had coalesced around her companion.

Ranma suddenly stood up as several nins burst in through the front door.

"Saotome secret technique..." she shouted loudly.

Everyone tensed.

Anko only had time to ask, "Saotome?" before Ranma grabbed her and shouted, "Fast Break!"

Those in the restaurant stared at the overturned table and chairs before turning to the gaping hole in the previously solid wall.

Those nins at the door immediately ran outside and looked around.

High class restaurants are able to summon high class security. And these guys didn't give up easily...

-o-o-o-o-o-

They gave up.

The two runners were too fast.

But the Uchiha Police Force was more than ready to take over.

Both women skidded to a halt when they saw the group of three nin wearing black uniforms with the Uchiha clan symbol on the back. One of them pointed and shouted, "There they are!"

Ranma quickly looked around before pointing, "That way."

They dashed into a nearby alleyway.

"How come the police reacted so quickly?!" Anko complained as they both hopped over a stray garbage can and continued to make their way down the wide alleyway.

"How should I know?!"

Both women ground to a halt when several nins leaped off of the roof and landed in front of them.

"Halt!"

"What's that behind you!" Ranma suddenly cried while pointing to a spot behind them.

"What do you take us for?" The nin coolly demanded.

- RIP -

The nins stood still for a second before they collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.

"..." Anko was gaping speechlessly as Ranma swiveled around and faced the three that were approaching behind.

Three more bodies collapsed and blood slowly pooled around them.

A headset on one of the unconsciousness nins briefly blared, "Beta group! Report in!"

Ranma quickly grabbed her friend and jumped over the pile of unconscious bodies.

"I can't believe you did that! Have you no shame?!"

"What are you talking about, we got out didn't we?" Ranma hissed back as she struggled to keep her top from flying off as the two turned a corner.

"You flashed a bunch of Uchihas! Uchihas! The very thought of giving those prissy bastards a peep show makes me wanna hurl!" Anko shot back before she turned to see why Kushina had cursed and stopped.

Dead end.

"Crap..." Anko groaned.

"If we jump onto the roof, they'll know where we are," Ranma frantically thought out loud.

"...Now what?"

"..."

Kushina was suspiciously quiet. "Shina-chan?" Anko asked in a worried voice.

"I'll see you in a bit Anko."

"What?! Hey, what do you mean by that." Anko shouted when she suddenly felt Kushina disappear.

She whirled around to see Kushina in a hunched over position with a blank look on her face.

And then the redhead pulled a psychedelic cloth out of her pocket and walked over to the wall where she started effortlessly scaling the squat building's walls barehanded, like a gecko. And then the mind-blowingly colorful cloth covered her...

...and cloth and wearer both shimmered before fading from view.

Several police-nin on the rooftops peered in from above as several others ran in from around the corner. "There they are!"

"Where's her partner?" another one shouted.

"Y-" Anko stopped gaping when she was grabbed from behind. "You suck!" she shouted angrily as she was forced against a wall and her arms tied behind her back.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

A/N:

It's all fun and games until someone gets captured.

Ranma used two special techniques in her final escape. Three if you want to be technical. What were they?

Psychedelic is the best way to describe the cloth...but I didn't come up with the word. Wikipedia did.

I'm pretty good at fight scenes, I think. Romance however...well, I know how not to write one. But writing one isn't easy.

**Acknowledgements**

**Sakura Lisel - **that was a hilarious review. Hey everyone! Check it out! _"∗roflol∗ Anko and Ranma should be ASHAMED of themselves, putting so many buffet restaurants out of business because of their overeating.(...)"_

Shun came up with SimAnt by taking Entwined Symphony and shortening it to EntSym, I think.


	8. It Starts

_"..."_

"..."

SimAnt  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining. I also don't own SimAnt. Last I checked, that was owned by Microprose.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

Chapter 7: It Starts

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-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

_She had found a piece of paper with a weird symbol on the front soon after the fight. It was attached to her hip, a spot she remembered him touching when she had missed him the first time she had tried to counterattack._

_After ripping it off and tossing it aside, she stared in the direction that he had disappeared in before she huffed. In the end, she had won..._

_...the pervert had escaped; it counted as running away._

_But it turned out to be a hollow victory, in more ways than one._

_As she continued on her travels, he appeared at the periphery of her senses from time to time. The pervert was still following her._

_She huffed. And this time, no matter how hard she tried, he always managed to disappear before she got to him._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_She came to a small village. It was dark out, so she decided to stay at the local inn for a night._

_As he stood under the shower, he couldn't help but feel happy at being a guy again._

_He was toweling himself off as he left the bathroom in just his boxers when he heard a great deal of commotion outside._

_He went over to the window and saw the flames licking away at a nearby house._

_Quickly sliding his arms through both sleeves of his shirt before pulling on a pair of pants, he pulled both ends of the towel out from under the collar before running to the window and sliding it open. _

_The towel ends flapped wildly as the air rushed upward during his brief moment of free-fall._

_Landing lightly on the hard-packed earth, he jogged over. "What's goin on?" he asked a bystander._

_"Don't worry about it, we've received word that ninjas will arrive soon to take care of it."_

_"Ninjas?" the first person that came to mind was the Kuno's sla-servant, Sasuke. "What about the fire department?"_

_The bystander turned to the one asking him questions before looking up and down. "I haven't seen you before. Are you just passing through?"_

_Ranma nodded._

_"This town is too small to support one and the small lake at the bottom of this mountain is too far away to be of service," the bystander explained. "Don't worry. Like I said, the nins will deal with it."_

_Oh. He was disappointed that he couldn't do more to help, but as long as everything was taken care of...he started to return to the hotel._

_That was when someone shouted, "Someone help!"_

_"What's the hurry?"_

_"My girlfriend is still in there!"_

_The calm around the crowd started to dissipate. "I thought everyone was pulled out. What's she doing back in there?!"_

_"She wanted to save some of her memories. "_

_"Maybe she's back outside already?" someone offered in a hopeful tone of voice._

_"She hasn't. I haven't seen her."_

_Someone in the crowd hissed. "When the nins arrive, it'll be too late. They'll bury the house in dirt before looking for survivors. If the fire doesn't kill her, a house collapsing under a ton of dirt will."_

_The crowd hesitated. "We can't go in there!" someone finally shouted out._

_Ranma had heard enough. He reached down and grabbed his sleeve to rip it off when his hand encountered an obstacle. A damp towel? Quickly folding it up, he used it to cover his mouth and nose._

_"Wait, what are you doing?!"_

_Ranma didn't bother answering, he was already inside._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_The smoke was thick and difficult to see through. The searing heat felt like it was cooking his skin. He ignored his discomfort as he searched through his rapidly deteriorating surroundings. After looking through several rooms, the floor suddenly shifted, nearly throwing him off of his feet._

_He was about to declare the house empty when he heard something._

_It turned out to be a small cream and white puppy. It barked several times at him before running into a nearby room._

_That was where he found her, unconscious. It looked as if she had been trying to run out when a wooden beam knocked her over and pinned her down. Throwing the towel aside, he quickly bent down and grasped the beam before he hauled upwards._

_It finally gave way with a groan and the girl was free. The puppy immediately pounced on top of the girl's stomach; there was something in its mouth. He had no time to see what as he picked up the limp body, and its passenger, bridal style before he looked around for an exit. Not spotting any, he charged forward and kicked a wall as hard as he could. It blasted outward, leaving him with an unobstructed view of the outside. He jumped out._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_A group of people came running over._

_"Miranda!" _

_"Thank you for saving her!" the boyfriend gratefully said as he reached over and took the girl. _

_"Heh, anytime," Ranma replied before he pat the puppy on the head. "Thanks."_

_"He likes you."_

_His sixth sense suddenly flared. He was so surprised that someone was attacking him in such a public place that he couldn't dodge in time. _

_He felt something enter his back before the world went black._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_The crowd stared speechless as the hero suddenly collapsed bonelessly._

_A yellow-haired teenager leapt down and checked the unconscious hero's pulse. "He inhaled too much smoke. I'll take him to the nearest hospital for treatment," he calmly said._

_Grabbing the body in a fireman's carry, he immediately leapt away._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

_The fire-fighting nins finally arrived, and using huge blocks of dirt, buried the house, preventing air from reaching the fire. The mound suddenly flattened itself out as the house collapsed under the sheer weight imposed on its flame-licked frame._

_"Thank you!" the mayor said, although the tears running down his face as he handed the waiting and very intimidating-looking leader of the group a large sack of cash was a pretty good indicator of how sincere his gratitude was._

_"It was nothing." the nins said as they prepared to leave after receiving their payment._

_One of the townsfolk stepped forward. "Please..."_

_"?"_

_"...thank the nins that arrived here first. Their bravery will be well-remembered."_

_The nins looked at each other before they turned back to the townsfolk. "Nins? What did they look like?"_

_The townspeople looked at each other before the grateful boyfriend stepped forward, "one had black hair, wearing an unbuttoned red shirt, and a pigtail. The other was a spiky haired man. We couldn't see much else about him."_

_The leader turned to his team._

_They nodded their heads._

_"We'll be sure to thank them." he said before he turned and shouted, "Move out!"_

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Present -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

The instant the news reached the Hokage's office through an informal.‍network, he had disappeared.

"Hokage-sama! To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" The warden asked in a calm collected manner.

He wasn't fooled for an instant. He had caught the Uchihas by surprise with his visit.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"I don't know why you have such an interest in these prisoners Hokage-sama," the prison warden, who was unsurprisingly also an Uchiha, said as he formed several hand seals before the first door opened, allowing the two of them to enter the prison complex.

"I have heard about a grave injustice from my office."

"There is no injustice. The Uchiha are fair, equal, and discerning in our duty to protect the citizens from trouble within the walls."

"I hope so," the Third commented as he took in the wretched state of some of the prisoners.

The two stopped in front of the cell containing the most recent prisoners.

"Hokage-sama!" the inhabitant of the cell shouted as she ran over and peered out.

After looking in, the Third turned to the prison warden. "Where is the other?"

"We're still trying to find her," was the strangely honest reply.

So they hadn't caught Kushina yet. "Release her." he commanded.

The warden blinked. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but did you..."

"Yes," the Third replied in a solid voice. A voice that he used when he wanted something done.

"But..."

"What crimes have these women been charged with?" the Third ordered.

"Running to escape payment, Destruction of Private Property, and Resisting Arrest," the warden promptly listed.

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes.

"We're innocent!" Anko shouted.

"And even if they weren't," the Third added, "these are hardly crimes to imprison one in a high-security complex."

"Sir, I beg your pardon but..." the flustered warden tried to protest.

"Fine them!" the third coolly said. "The damages are well within their finances."

"But they flashed our nins."

"Kushina did!" Anko quickly clarified.

"She flashed your nins?" the Third asked skeptically. "What charge would that fall under?"

Before the warden could make up a fake trumped up charge, the Third glared harshly. "I gave your force an advanced warning so that you could suppress the activity that was likely to result, not to needlessly imprison those that don't deserve it.

"But the troubles ceased after their arrest."

"I have complaints sitting on my desk from angry citizens. Reports demanding payment for the police force's excessive measures when the two women ran. Excessive measures that led to the destruction of ten homes, damage to five roads, and several injuries ranging to mild to severe as the young ladies ran to escape IMPRISONMENT. Shall I levy fines upon the police force for lack of sound judgement?"

The warden's mouth flapped soundlessly for several minutes. "Very well," he acceded. "We'll recall our forces and fine the two."

Flashing through several seals, the deadbolt started to move. Crea-

The ground shook violently as a large explosion rocked the building.

Another explosion sounded soon after, shaking the building some more.

∗BOOM∗ the wall suddenly blew inwards. When the dust cleared, a gaping hole in the meter thick stone wall connected Anko's cell to the outside.

"Anko! Let's g-" a cheerful voice sounded as its owner left the newly formed tunnel. "H-Hokage-jiisan! What are you doing here?!"

The Third and Anko both hid their face. "Kushina you idiot."

"We're adding attempted jailbreak, destruction of an important facility, and disrespect of influential figures to the list of charges," the Uchiha said with a smug grin.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Matters were eventually cleared up, and the Third still managed to buy freedom for the two women.

"I wish to speak with Kushina alone, Anko."

Anko bowed to their esteemed leader before she gave her sometimes-friend an apologetic look as she stepped out from the Third's office.

"Of all the things that you could have done," The Third ranted from his seat.

"I said I was sorry!"

"It's not enough. Do you understand what you have done?!"

Not really, but she didn't want to listen to another of the geezer's rants. "Yes! Can I go now?"

"No."

"But."

"You haven't learned."

"But!"

"I have some things for you to do before I consider this matter closed..." his voice conveyed the unspoken message that if she failed to perform even one, he would have her returned to the Uchihas before night fell.

"What?!" Ranma shrieked.

"First you will pay the restaurant what you owe for the meal and the damages."

"It's their fault that they weren't able to stop me from running out." she defiantly shouted back.

"You will pay what you owe," the Hokage forcefully repeated.

"But the instant I take a step into that restaurant, I'll be arrested. And even if I do pay them, they'll never let me eat there again!"

"I will accompany you so that those claims do not happen then." The Third coolly responded.

The old goat! Using her to escape his duties. "You..." a chill suddenly ran up her spine when she saw his glare. He meant business this time. "Fine. Is that all?" she demanded, trying to recover gracefully from her sudden loss of resistance.

The Hokage's powerful stare somehow seemed to lengthen, stabbing right through her. "No. Next, you will apologize to the Uchihas."

"N-No freaking way old man. I've never apologized to them before and I won't start now," she bravely countered as her anger grew again.

"You exposed yourself in front of them. They consider it an act of public embarrassment."

The freezing fear that she had had moments ago had thawed by now. "No one else was there to see except me and Anko. And they enjoyed it! They should be apologizing to me for looking!"

Sparks flew as the two glared at each other for several moments.

"You will apologize. I will be there to bear witness to this event. Are we clear on this matter?" The Third forcefully said.

Ranma shrugged off the attempt at intimidation. "No-"

Just when it looked like an explosion was going to erupt between them, the heated atmosphere suddenly disappeared.

"We'll discuss this later."

"And I'll say no. Are you through yet?"

"No. Matters with your son has gone out of hand. Your disrespect has-"

"Hold it!" Ranma shouted, holding up a hand. "I just remembered. There was a scratch on Naruto's arm when I got back." She out two fingers as she said this, to let the Hokage know the rough size of the cut.

Two centimeters? If it weren't for her cold tone of voice, he would have thought she was fooling around. "What are you talking about? My nins were watching him carefully."

"They must suck at their jobs then," she coldly responded.

"Are you questioning the abilities of my subordinates?"

"Yes."

"I can have you killed for that."

"I'd like to see you try," the redhead coldly responded as a blue aura flared around her.

Several nins took that moment to run in, fully prepared to fight. "Hokage-sama!"

The Third turned to them after a moment when he realized that Ranma was already sizing them up. "Leave us," he commanded before he turned to the glowing redhead. "Perhaps he tripped and fell." the Third calmly suggested as the nins quickly left.

"That's bullshit and you know it," she growled out.

"Very well. Why don't we ask the one most likely to know?"

"Fine." Ranma angrily said as the aura around her faded away.

The Third turned to the open door, "summon Uzumaki-san's son to my office."

Ranma turned white. "Naruto?"

"He's the one most likely to know," the Third replied without fanfare.

Suddenly, Ranma looked like she wanted to be miles away.

Naruto arrived a few minutes later.

"Hokage-jisan, you called?" He noticed that someone else was in the room. "Kaasan." he greeted coolly.

"Yo," she replied with a schooled look of indifference on her her face. Naruto flinched slightly.

"Show me the cut," the Third ordered.

Ranma went over to her son and bent down. "It's healed," she finally concluded before pointing at her son's elbow. "But it was right there."

"Is your mother telling the truth?" the Third asked.

"No." It was obvious that he was lying.

"The truth please," The Third calmly said.

"She's not." Still a lie.

"There, see. Let's put this matter to rest."

Ranma wasn't about to accept this. "Old man..."

He glanced warningly at her, before turning to the child. "You may leave, Naruto."

"Wait! Naruto!"

It was no use, her son didn't respond to her call. She watched her son walk out the door before she rounded on the Hokage with an infuriated look on her face. "Dammit old man."

"It's over Kushina. Drop it."

She gnashed her teeth angrily before her face fell and she reluctantly nodded.

"Is there a reason for the newfound conflict between you two?" The Third asked. "You used to be cold to each other, but not this much."

Ranma groaned and sat down. "I told him about his father."

The Third immediately fixed her with a piercing look. "Did you..."

Ranma quickly shook her head. "No, not his name or anythin'. Just some things that he did."

"I see. Why is this the problem?"

She sulked for several minutes before she finally responded. "Ever since then, I've felt like he's been comparing me to a dead guy."

The Third frowned. "The Fourth..."

"Yeah yeah, he was great and all. And I respect 'im. But I can't help but feel angry at him too. Dammit! Even when he's dead, he's still doing things to piss me off."

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

In a dark room...

"The Third's interest in that lowly civilian is quite interesting...wouldn't you say? Have we received the signed documents yet?"

"..."

"Excellent. Summon everybody. We will, of course, inspect the apartment as we have requested. We will ALSO find evidence of treachery from the container and his caretaker."


	9. Hinata's Upcoming Birthday

_I thought you were looking for chapter titles.  
I was...  
Why'd you change the title of the story then?  
...There, it's back. Happy?_

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

Chapter 8: Hinata's Birthday

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-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The Past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Light slowly filtered into his eyes as they slowly opened.

"W-where am I?"

"..." Something was wrong.

He found that he couldn't move. Ropes were binding his arm, chest, and legs to a cot.

Well, no problem. Flexing his muscles, he prepared to break free.

But the ropes wouldn't budge.

After several minutes of trying with no success, he laid back, "Kodachi, let me go." he tiredly said.

When there was no reply...

"Shampoo, Ucchan?"

Still no reply.

You uncute tomboy...games over. Untie the ropes, 'right?"

"..."

He snarled, "Okay Four-eyes, this isn't funny."

"..."

"Pig-boy, when the hell'd you learn to use ropes?"

"..."

He knew someone else was in his room because of his Ki senses, but he couldn't turn his head and see who.

"Who the heck are you?"

"..."

"What's goin on?"

"..."

"What do you want?!"

"..."

After what seemed like hours, there was movement to the side.

"..."

"Information," the stranger said in a cool voice.

"Oh, now you're talking." Ranma snarled.

"..." the stranger had fallen silent once again.

After several minutes of fighting with his bindings, Ranma tried to turn to the stranger. "Dammit! What's with the silent act?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Where do you come from?" the stranger finally asked.

"Buzz off!"

Ranma's head turned when something struck him upside the face.

"It is in your best interest to answer the question."

"Bakayarou!" Ranma roared angrily as he struggled to break free.

He felt his head turn again when another blow struck him.

Now Ranma was mad. Bound or not, he was going to make this guy pay. The cot thumped wildly, sometimes leaving the ground as he struggled violently to break free.

It was some time later when Ranma finally settled down.

"You have finally realized the futility of your actions."

"Dammit!" Ranma hollered. "Fine. Gimme water then I'll talk."

"..."

There was the sound of running water before the stranger returned with a glass.

The water inside was dirty. The cup, even more so. The stranger held the glass out, tilted at an angle that would make drinking difficult, but not impossible.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Ranma leaned forward as much as he could and forced himself to take in a large mouthful of the somewhat cool but still lukewarm crud before he immediately spewed it all over himself instead of swallowing it.

The change happened quickly. She let out a pained hiss when a rather prominent part of her chest was forcefully held down by the ropes. Quickly slipping her smaller hand free from the rope binding her wrist, she made a grab for her tormentor but he danced away at the last moment.

But she had the glass in her hands. At the same time she was reaching for her opponent, she was tightening her grip. It shattered an instant later.

Before the shards reached the floor, she had reached out and snagged a large piece with her free hand. With a deft swipe, she was rolling off of the bed and heading for the floor.

Metal rattled as the cot took a blow meant for her. Ranma responded by kicking upwards, striking the backside of the cot and sending it in the air. Instead of being distracted by that act however, her opponent rushed at her.

Ranma hopped backwards, barely dodging a knife strike. Backing up one more step, she suppressed a gasp when her back hit the wall.

The room was too small! Even if her smaller size made it easier for her to move around than in boy form, and she had seen enough of her opponent's style to know that he also needed space to work, she was at an extreme disadvantage. Her opponent had greater strength and possessed sharp close-quarter weaponry.

Ranma quickly glanced upward before she hurled the shard in her bleeding hand in that direction. She immediately rebounded off of the wall and rolled to a stop on the other side of the room, a stinging in her right arm evidence of a glancing strike. For one brief instant, she saw her opponent's emotionless eyes.

And then the ceiling light promptly shattered when a glass shard struck it.

From then on, the battle proceeded in darkness.

Ranma soon found herself clinging to the ceiling and listening for any signs of movement. While she could sense his position from Ki, it had become exceedingly dangerous to attack as he always seemed to know that she was approaching somehow.

This guy, he worried her. All of his moves had become very random now that they were shrouded in the darkness but there was no doubt that she could be mortally wounded if a single slash connected.

"Who the hell are you?!" she shouted before she realized what she had done.

There was a thud as metal imbedded itself, but Ranma was now crouched on the floor and trying to make herself as small as possible.

She had been in many life and death situations before, but all of them had her trying to save something. For the first time in her life, she wasn't enjoying the thrill of the battle, she was scared to death of it. The stakes were too high, one of them was going to die if this continued. And for what?! Did she want to kill a guy just because he followed her?

She had to get out of here! Turning around, she spotted it. The wall's breaking point. She jabbed her finger right at it.

Bakusai Tenketsu!

∗BOOM∗

Ranma flew backwards from the force of the blast. Rocks struck her over and over again and she nearly collapsed from the pain. She had learned the technique quickly. But she hadn't bothered to worry about the conditioning because she thought she could just dodge away. She couldn't this time, and she was paying for it in spades.

Ranma immediately suppressed the pain and assumed the Umisenken stance as she struggled to put as much distance between her and the sunlight entering the room.

Moments later, she felt her opponent leave.

After a minute, she turned around and blew out another wall with the Bakusai Tenketsu. Her body screamed in agony even as she managed to leap away before the rocks could strike her this time.

Her wounds were worse than she thought.

She didn't give herself time to rest and recover when she landed. Turning around, she frantically dashed for the first opening that she had made.

Two kilometers away, the adrenaline finally wore away and a combination of exhaustion, fatigue, and pain overwhelmed her. Her body shut down and she collapsed right in the middle of the forest.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- A few months before the present -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Ranma wearily sat up in her bed and looked around before she wrapped her arms around herself.

Why was it so cold?

She was nearly flying when she left the apartment she shared with her son and ran downstairs to the manager's office.

Unlocking the door, she fumbled around before she found the lightswitch.

It didn't take long for her to reach the temperature panel and activate the heat.

She sat down on the desk and waited.

Soon the excess heat from the exertion of coming down three flights of stairs disappeared, leaving her feeling cold once again.

She shivered pathetically in her spot for a moment before pulling her legs up to her body and hugging them.

It wasn't enough, the chill continued to soak through her t-shirt. Dammit, why did her girl-form have to be so difficult to keep warm?

She sneezed before looking over when someone approached her from the side.

"Here," Naruto said as he glared off to the side. She looked down and saw a large downy blanket in his hands.

"Thanks Naruto∼" she sang as she hurriedly grabbed it and threw it around herself.

"Whatever," he mumbled as he stiffly left the office.

Ranma watched him leave before she wrapped the blanket tightly around her body. The chill started to fade away and a content smile blossomed on her face.

-o-o-o-o-o-

She finally unwrapped the blanket before standing up to stretch. The apartment was finally warm enough to move around unaided.

A smile graced her face. Naruto deserved something nice for his thoughtfulness.

Maybe...

Naruto barrelled downstairs, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Curious, Ranma peeked out from the manager's office.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Uzumaki Kushina," the white eyed man calmly greeted.

"Hyuuga-san," she mockingly replied as she stepped out of the office. Hiashi appeared not to have heard.

"Your nephew and you are cordially invited to Hinata's birthday celebration," he civilly replied.

A smug grin replaced Ranma's surprised expression. "Oh? I thought I wasn't invited to all future events."

Hiashi's mouth thinned, expressing his irritation and his desire not to be here. "I can retract this invitation. Do not make me regret offering it to you." The instant the last word left his mouth, his eyes flickered downward and the briefest trace of a scowl flashed on his face. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me. I humbly ask that you attend."

Ranma's eyes flickered down to the two small girls at Hiashi's feet. She grinned and sauntered over before leaning in and motioning for him to lower his head so she could whisper something to him.

With deliberate slowness, she spoke in a low but clear voice... "Whipped."

Hiashi's calmly stood to his full height, which towered over the small redhead. "It appears you don't know your place, woman."

A scowl appeared on Ranma's face as her fist suddenly shot forward and grabbed onto a fold of Hiashi's Kimono. "Yeah?" she sneered before something crashed into the back of her leg. "It's above yours, right?" she demanded before she looked down to see why Naruto was desperately clutching her leg.

"Noo! Don't fight Kaasan! You'll die!"

"Against him?" Ranma demanded, surprised at Naruto's belief that she couldn't win. She snorted and shook her head. "No I won't."

Instead of being reassured, Naruto looked like he was going to break down. "No." He weakly said as tears threatened to fall.

Ranma looked like she wanted to protest, but she finally gave a huff and pushed the tall man away. "I...fine, looks like you got lucky, Hiashi."

"Hyuuga-san," Hiashi corrected. A corner of his mouth ticked upward.

Ranma growled at the message that he was broadcasting.

Hiashi turned to leave. "We will see you on the 27th. Please be on time."

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Later that evening, Naruto entered her room without warning. However, Ranma had sensed his arrival long before he opened the door.

"Naruto?" She asked as she opened her eyes. She remained standing on her head. "What's up?"

"Hinata-chan..." Naruto said hesitantly.

"What about her?"

"I think something is wrong with Hinata-chan," he quietly replied.

"Hmm? How come?" Ranma breezily asked. Hiashi's daughter looked fine when they visited this morning.

...

"Naruto?" she asked when Naruto didn't reply immediately.

He shook his head. "Never mind. Forget it."

Ranma had a confused expression on her face. "Huh?"

Instead of clarifying, Naruto took the time to move toward her closet. It sounded like he was digging deep inside. Before she could ask what he was doing, he came out moments later.

"Wear this."

Ranma rolled to her feet before looking up. "What? No! Naruto-"

"It's Hinata-chan's birthday. I'm not going to be the one to ruin it for her," he coldly said before he dropped the lavendar kimono and blue sash to the floor and left the room.

There was a lost look on Ranma's face. "...but..."

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

The 29th of December had finally arrived.

"I feel like a spring roll," Ranma moaned as she slowly headed for the mansion, her breath coming out as puffs from the cold air.

It might not seem like it, but he was a good kid. She was confident about that.

But they weren't getting along very well at all. Time had given her a little help...or so she'd like to say. At the very least, she sort of knew what her son wanted. And she did try.

But it never seemed to be enough. She thought depressedly. She immediately perked up when someone appeared before her.

"May I help you Hiashi-chan?" she mocked.

Hiashi's mouth thinned, giving his stern expression a more menacing look. He was...displeased at her comment. "Your nephew is already inside Uzumaki-san." he gravely intoned as his eyes started roaming up and down her body in a nonlecherous manner. "Your attire is different today," the Hyuuga head finally said, a hint of smugness in his voice.

She just shrugged, refusing to let the dig affect her.

"You're late. The festivities have already begun."

"Yes, I'm very sorry." she replied without a hint of sincerity whatsoever as she started to walk past him.

Hiashi moved to block her path. "Have you given any thought to my offer?"

Ranma's lazy attitude suddenly disappeared as an uncharacteristic seriousness appeared. "My answer is still no."

"Hmm, as to be expected. Very well. I will trouble you no further regarding the issue, please enjoy the party. Hiashi graciously said before he bowed and stepped aside. "Be aware that I will not hesitate to throw you out should you get out of line."

"Yeah yeah, I'll be good." the redhead huffed as she slowly sauntered inside.

-o-o-o-o-o-

As she watched Naruto chat politely with those guests that dared approach him, Ranma couldn't help but yawn.

Naruto picked that moment to glance over, but an innocent expression was on Ranma's face as she pretended that she hadn't done anything.

She was so bored. But she couldn't leave unless she was positive that Naruto was well-protected. Even if she somewhat trusted Hiashi...it only took one touch from a member of his family.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

A/N:

I really believe that this story is heavily influenced by ToastedPine's Demiglace Graffiti (www.fanfiction.‌net/s/3293331/1). Even Naruto's rebellious behavior has ties from that story. But this story isn't written quite as well, so I encourage you to read ToastedPine's work because it's quite fun to read.


	10. Hanabi's a Child

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. I'm just borrowing the characters from their great stories to create something entertaining.

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

_Isn't the disclaimer supposed to go here?_

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

**Chapter 9: Hanabi's a Child**

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-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

The first thing that Ranma realized upon waking was that she was a girl. The weight on her chest told her that much.

The next was that someone was standing next to her. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that the stalker had found her.

She immediately feigned sleep, stalling and hoping beyond hope that she would wake up soon. Or that feigning sleep would make him go away.

When the ground beneath her started to creak and bounce, she instantly realized that she was laying upon a bed. She promptly opened her eyes. Even though he had all of his clothes on, there was no mistaking his intentions.

"Pervert!"

Like always, he was already out of her attack range by the time her attack was supposed to connect.

Instead of waiting, Ranma rolled, taking a corner of the bed's sheets with her.

Flinging the sheet out the instant she reached the edge of the bed, she watched as it soared over her opponent's head. He made no move.

And then she hauled the sheet downwards. By now he was moving, but it was too late.

In moments, she had the sheets wrapped around his head. With a sharp strike to the neck, the guy went limp.

But she wasn't finished yet.

Bending down, she grabbed his waist and threw him upwards slightly so that she could get a firm hold of his legs. She wound up and threw him...at himself.

There was a grunt and her surprised opponent bent forward as he was struck in the gut by the incoming log. His uncontrollable flight ended with the wall.

Ranma was already there. Divesting the log of the bedsheet, she had her foe tied up in the very next motion. Once he was secure, she checked his pockets. Not finding anything, she grabbed the knapsack that was lying in the middle of the floor and escaped through the window.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- A few months before the present -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

"No."

The abruptness of Naruto's response had Ranma gritting her teeth. She grabbed her son.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Dammit Kaasan, let me go."

She threw him onto the matted ground of the training room, several rooms in the apartment that had been joined together and set aside for training and fitness purposes.

"Defend yourself," she barked before she charged forward.

Naruto was still there when she let loose a punch. He let out a cry of pain before he crashed to the ground, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

Ranma just stood there, shaking. "That was pathetic!" she finally roared. He hadn't even landed right.

Naruto struggled to his feet, one of his arms hanging limply. It must have been sprained by the bad fall. "Are we done yet?"

Ranma's eyes narrowed as she crouched and entered a less offense-based stance. "No."

"Great." Naruto grunted as he stood up and began to head for the exit.

Ranma read his intentions and stood up. "Oi, class hasn't been dismissed yet."

"Who cares," Naruto carelessly replied. "The Hyuugas invited us over for dinner and I'm going to get ready."

"Class isn't dismissed yet." Ranma repeated frantically.

Naruto continued for the exit.

"Dammit Naruto, I'm tryin' ta help! Aren't you the one that keeps saying that he wants to grow stronger?!"

"Not from you."

Ranma immediately threw a punch at a dummy standing right next to her. A loud clang resounded throughout the training room. She slowly withdrew her hand, leaving a fist-sized hole in the training contraption. Her fist had easily passed through a 5 centimeter slab of solid steel.

"Fine," she calmly said after suppressing her rage.

But Naruto was already gone.

"Class is over," she continued quietly.

-o-o-o-o-o-

A few hours later, Ranma paused just as she was about to leave her room. Naruto was glaring at her again. Now what did she do?

When his eyes trended downwards, she instantly knew. Her clothes...

She smirked at him. "It's no one's birthday today. So I'm not gonna unless you can defeat me in a sparring match."

He instantly glowered at her and stomped off.

She watched him go before she sighed. She had so hoped he would at least try.

-o-o-o-o-o-

A small crowd of children milled around the ringleader, Naruto.

"Ninja?" he finally asked.

Hinata shook her head. "Father will not let us. That game creates too much noise."

"There's nothing to do then." Naruto growled as he assumed a thinking pose.

He finally stood up. "I got it. We're going to pretend to be ninjas."

"..."

"Okay then. I'm the Fourth."

"I want to be the Fourth!" Hanabi suddenly piped up.

All eyes turned to the soon-to-be three year old.

"I want to be the Fourth." she repeated.

"But I'm the Fourth!"

A scowl appeared on the small girl's face. "I want to be the Fourth!"

"Why don't we let Hanabi be the Fourth this time?" Hinata asked with an appeasing smile on her face.

"...Fine." Naruto finally said. "That makes me the villain and Hinata the damsel in distress." he finally decided before he pointed to the rest of the children. "And that makes you guys my minions." he said with a grin before he threw an arm around Hinata's shoulder. "So let's get started."

Hanabi had a confused expression on her face as Naruto led Hinata away. "Why is Oneesama with you?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder. "Don't you know? The villain always has the damsel in distress first." he patiently explained.

"...Then I want to be the villain."

"You can't change now, the game has already started!" Naruto argued as he waved a wooden dagger at the youngest child.

"Try and save me Hanabi," Hinata quietly encouraged as she handed her sister a training kunai.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma stopped meditating and cracked open an eye. Naruto took that moment to run by screaming. A small group of angry children followed.

"It's not my fault, I'm supposed to be the villain!" he shrieked out.

A large group of guards soon passed by...it was obvious that they were also chasing her son.

Hinata brought up the rear. "It was a game!" she tearfully cried out as she struggled to keep up with the group, a difficult task considering the confining kimono she was wearing.

_That looked familiar_, Ranma thought wistfully as she reached for a teacup and suppressed the urge to save Naruto. A shadow passed over her.

"Your nephew struck my daughter." Hiashi coolly said. Hanabi stood behind him, wiping her eyes repeatedly with her free hand and sniffling from time to time.

"I'm sure it was just a tap." Ranma said with a small chuckle.

"Do not make light of the situation."

Ranma studied Hanabi for a moment and noted the small line-shaped bruise that was forming on her arm. "C'mon Hiashi-chan, it's not serious."

"You are pushing the bounds of my patience." the Hyuuga head growled, his voice dropping to a whisper.

The mirth instantly disappeared from Ranma's face. "This is a small matter. Drop it." she coldly warned as an aura of power slowly formed around her.

Several nearby branch members immediately tensed up. There was an unwilling look on their face as they waited for the two sides to attack each other.

The two stared challengingly at each other, neither willing to yield to the other. Ranma finally looked away, a carefree smile forming on her face as she snagged the teacup that she had wanted earlier.

"I expect your apology tomorrow." Hiashi immediately said as the guards silently breathed a sigh of relief.

Ranma paused midsip and innocently looked up. "Is the food ready yet?"

-o-o-o-o-o-

The three children were sitting at a table separate from the adults when Hanabi put down her chopsticks and turned to Naruto. "My Otou-sama and your aunt were arguing."

Naruto paused midbite to see how Hanabi was going to end that statement.

"Otou-sama won." Hanabi continued.

"..." It didn't seem like Hanabi-san was done yet.

"And now your aunt will have to apo-" Hanabi paused, her face screwed up in concentration as she struggled to say the word. "a-apologize to him."

Naruto scoffed when he heard that. "Kaasan isn't going to apologize."

Hinata had a thoughtful expression on her face. "But she lost."

For some unknown reason, that struck a bad chord. "Kaasan doesn't lose."

"Naruto's Okaasan lost to Otou-sama." Hinata pointed out.

"Kaasan doesn't lose," Naruto repeated.

"But Otou-sama beat her. She has to apologize." Hanabi argued.

Naruto shook his head. "She won't. And if your Father tries to force her, she'll beat him up."

"No!" Hanabi angrily denied. "Father would beat your aunt up instead."

Children argue all the time about who has the best parents. Despite the cold relationship between the two, Naruto was no different. "No way! My Kaasan is stronger than your Tousan! She'll beat him up, then she'll take down the rest the guards!" he blustered.

Hanabi vehemently shook her head and prepared to defend her father when a shout caught their attention.

"That's it! I've had enough of your high-and-mighty attitude!" Bowls were overturned as Naruto's mother leapt onto the table and slugged the Hyuuga Head.

More shouts started coming from all over as guards came streaming into the dining room to stop the assassin...

Soon there was a mass of groaning bodies scattered all around, with Ranma standing untouched in her spot, cracking her knuckles and waiting for more. From the swaying, it was easy to deduce that she was drunk.

After several moments of waiting and no attacks, Ranma collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

She started snoring loudly.

"..."

"Otou-sama!" Hanabi shrieked as she ran to a particularly large pile of bodies and tried to drag her father out from underneath.

"Naruto's Kaasan is so cool," Hinata whispered with a dazed look on her face.

Naruto had his face hidden behind his hands as he tried to make himself smaller and less noticeable. "Kaasan..."

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

A/N:

The most beautiful things about posting online is the ability to change whatever's already there. This helps greatly because my current plan is to introduce the characters and the rules of this universe.

Once I have enough material for the present time period to establish that Naruto is bratty but not all that bad, I can and MIGHT reshuffle the chapters and insert transitions so that each time period is far more contiguous.

It depends on how difficult this story will be to read from the first chapter to the last with the abrupt changes in time period. So I want your thoughts on how easy it is to read from start to finish...and from just the last chapter.

Because I quite like this format. Not writing in a sequence allows me to present answers without appearing hasty, and bring up way more questions along the way.


	11. An Old Familiar Face Or Two

Remember, stealing is wrong. So wrong. So very wrong. You'll anger the person you stole it from. ∗snicker∗

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

_I don't own Naruto or Ranma. The rights belong to their respective creators and I am merely borrowing the characters to make something fun._

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

**Chapter 10: An Old Familiar Face...or Two**

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- The past -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Ranma paused in the middle of the stone-paved road, before he opened his mouth widely and yawned. Glancing up at the slightly-reddish skies, he guessed that it was around dinnertime.

As if to confirm that thought, his stomach rumbled, loudly. It was a good thing he had found this town earlier. Both warm water and food were available in plentiful quantities. Looking around, he spotted a man selling a noodle bowl that he had never seen before.

-o-o-o-o-

"That'll be 10 ryo." The noodle seller told him while rubbing his hands in a greedy manner. The man's behavior almost reminded him of Nabiki, but Ranma shrugged as he pulled out a few strange coins from the knapsack. It wasn't his money after all.

When the vendor didn't return anything, instead, turning to another customer to take their order, Ranma was almost certain that the man was a crook. He shrugged it off, it wasn't his money after all, but he made a mental note to learn the value of each coin later.

Picking up the bowl and staring at the plain noodles floating around in his bowl, he picked up a pair of chopsticks.

The bowl was empty a moment later. It hadn't been very good, but he couldn't afford to be picky.

He yawned again. He had been traveling for hours and he needed to rest. A blip appeared at the periphery of his senses, causing him to perk up and move a little faster. He was being followed again. Didn't that blond guy ever quit?

-o-o-o-o-

His hair stopped flapping as the winds finally died down. Slowly lowering his fist, Ranma breathed a sigh of annoyance when he realized that his opponent had disappeared once again.

Despite being significantly outmatched in speed the extended reach and the familiarity of his boy form had made that last fight shorter and far easier than the previous few.

The adrenaline started to wear off and a feeling of tiredness returned with a vengeance. It was time to return to the town and get a night's rest.

A sudden chill ran down his spine. His gut was telling him that trouble was approaching.

His gut was correct as a group of masked people soon stepped out from the treeline and entered the clearing. They looked at each other before they advanced in a line.

"What's goin' on?" Ranma asked as he backed away, his hands held up in a pacifying gesture to show that he meant no harm.

"Were you the one responsible for the tornado?" one of them asked.

"Uhh, yeah?"

That stopped them short.

"A nin wouldn't admit to using such an attack." Ranma faintly heard one of them whisper to another.

"He's trying to deceive us. He's probably here as a decoy."

Two of them immediately broke off and headed for the treelines. It looked like they were searching for someone.

That left three. "Let's see what he knows." Someone from the remaining group whispered before one of them stepped forward and addressed him in a female voice. "Surrender." Having delivered that ultimatum, the woman in the costume started fingering the sharp edge of a strange knife, "or else." It was obvious what that 'or else' meant.

At this point, Ranma was feeling quite irritated. What was it with people that wanted to kill him today? Couldn't he sleep a little and then try and find a way home the next day without someone to bother him? "Look, I don't mean any trouble. Just let me go. You can look for that other guy if you want to ask what happened here."

Instead of answering, they were moving to surround him. It was almost like they wanted him to resist. Well, if they wouldn't listen to him, how could he refuse?

Lunging forward, he struck the closest opponent in the face, shattering the ceramic facemask and sending the man flying into a nearby tree.

"He's fast..." one of his opponents said to the others. And then the battle started.

-o-o-o-o-

Hiding within one of the trees overlooking the action, a man with blond hair watched the scuffle through narrowed eyes. He was waiting for the right moment.

His eyes suddenly widened when a small object flew toward his position. Snatching it from midair a brief instant before it lodged in his side, he applied a special tag to the handle before returning the Kumo-variety kunai back the way it came. Moments later, there was a brief flash of yellow.

A nearby body soon toppled lifelessly to the ground.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- A year before the present -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Their supplies had been running low again. Much as she would like to put it off because of her companion's problem, they really needed food and water. Particularly water. She shuddered when she recalled the last place they had been. It had been so dry that they couldn't even sweat properly.

Spying a distant town, she turned to her companion and eyed his smelly faded-yellow muscle shirt with a faint trace of disgust before gesturing for him to stop. "Wait here." she had ordered.

26-year-old Ryouga Hibiki nervously adjusted the spotted yellow bandanna on his forehead before he nodded. There was no choice in the matter. Because if he somehow got lost without her again, she was going to cut him in two.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma looked around frantically. Where was he?

She hadn't meant for the teasing to go that far, and now Naruto had disappeared.

Stretching out with her Ki senses, she found that he wasn't here. She was about to head to the next training ground when she paused and rubbed her eyes before looking again.

...

There was no mistake. A dark emotion appeared on her face as she dashed forward, unwilling to let this window of opportunity go to waste. Sliding to a halt, she cupped her hands to her mouth.

"Ryouga!" she shouted.

She saw the man perk up when his name was called. She was absolutely certain now. "...Prepare to die!"

By the time he had spotted her, she was already in the air; her leg extended and her foot angled for his face. The kick connected and a devastating amount of kinetic energy was transferred from the woman to the man.

A tree groaned ominously when Ryouga collided against it with a dull ∗Thud!∗

"You!" Ryouga roared as he got up, shoving weakened tree over in the process. "How dare you steal my line!" he cried out before he paused. He had seen the brilliant red hair of his opponent. "No way."

"For the hell you put me through, it's my line now!" Ranma roared back, slightly annoyed that that kick had barely affected the pig.

Ryouga promptly forgot about the red hair as red filled his entire vision. "You knocked off another of my lines! Di-"

"Die!" Ranma interrupted right before her Ki-enhanced punched slammed into his jaw.

Ryouga's head had turned slightly. But that was it. He had barely felt it.

For her part, Ranma was screaming mentally as she grabbed her wrist with her other hand. "Damn! What have you been eating!" she asked through gritted teeth as she struggled to master the pain.

A smug grin filled Ryouga's face as he rubbed his jaw. "Secret Amazon Technique."

"Yeah?" Ranma demanded with an upraised eyebrow. _"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken..." _

Ryouga's eyes widened as his suspicions were finally confirmed. The Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken had been one of his former rival's favorite moves. "Ran-" he started to say before over a hundred punches struck him, pushing him back slightly. It hadn't hurt one bit, but Ranma hadn't been intending to pierce through whatever iron-skin technique he was using now. Instead, she had used the superfast attack to draw a pattern on him.

_"...Revised! Hot Chestnuts Bursting Open!"_ Ranma added before flicking a drop of ink at her opponent. The black droplet connected with the edge of the pattern.

¤ BOOM! ¤

Ranma was quite surprised at the size of the explosion. She started hoping that she hadn't killed her former-rival with that attack...

...since she wanted him to suffer a bit more first.

Ryouga coughed several times as he stepped out from the smoke cloud a few seconds later. His shirt was little more than tatters by now. "I don't ∗cough∗ want to ∗cough∗"

Instead of letting him finish, Ranma lunged forward, a savage grin appeared on her face. "Die!" she screamed.

Ryouga immediately slammed his fingers into the ground. _ "Bakusai Tenketsu!"_

-o-o-o-o-o-

"They're coming this way!" someone shouted as he ran toward a small group of Jounin gathering at the edge of the village.

Those gathered acknowledged the message before turning to the leader. They were waiting for the order to disperse and subdue.

The leader was nodding as he listened to the rest of the messenger's findings. He finally turned to the assembled group. "I have just received word that Kushina is in the middle of that conflict. I'm afraid that the use of lethal force is prohibited."

Most of the group took the announcement in a stride. It was well known in the village that Kushina couldn't perform any jutsu. All they had to do was limit her mobility and her Taijutsu mastery would be impeded significantly. Lethal moves or not, she would be easy to bring down then.

They briefly considered the redhead's opponent before dismissing him as a low, maybe high level Chuunin. It wouldn't take much skill with chakra to be on par with a Taijutsu master.

The only one that was remotely worried was the Hokage, he had an inkling that Kushina's abilities were far beyond what she generally used. "Be careful," he warned in a serious tone of voice before he gave the signal to move out.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"AIYAH!"

The shrill battlecry from an unknown third party seemed to freeze time as both fighters as well as incoming nin stopped what they were about to do.

A woman soon entered the fray and resolved the fighting in a simple manner. She punched each combatant in the head.

∗ bonk. ∗  
"Huh?" Leave it to Ryouga to not notice a blow strong enough to kill a man.

∗ Pow! ∗  
"Gaah!" Ranma cried out as she lost her balance over and fell over, unwittingly digging a trench through the dirt. Quickly getting up from her fall, she backed toward a nearby tree before crouching down in a protective manner. Seeing that the fight was over, she started nursing the growing bump on her head.

The interfering girl slid to a halt, kicking up a small dust cloud in the process. She turned to face Ryouga. "Stupid pig-man! Shampoo leave for one minute and you start fight with-" she turned to his opponent and froze. "...Airen..." she finally whispered.

"S-Shampoo?!" Ranma's voice was a mix of pain, surprise, and happiness for the amazon.

Shampoo blinked before she started bouncing up and down. "Aiya! Finally find you. Search long long time, Shampoo so happy. You return with us, yes?"

"..."

"Why Airen look at Shampoo funny?"

"It's been years. How come your Japanese is still bad?" Ranma asked before she paused and added, "Uhh, not that I'm complaining or anything." It was great to see that some things hadn't changed.

Shampoo concentrated a little. "I was just jo-king." She grinned cheesily before she started to pout. "It not Shampoo fault that pig-boy so stupid that no can learn Japanese from him."

Ranma immediately started nodding in agreement.

"Hey!" Ryouga angrily protested, only to cringe and look away when Ranma fixed him with a lethal glare.

Before she could finish her mission to kill him, someone walked up to the three.

"Do you know these people, Kushina?" The Hokage didn't look happy. Ho boy.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Shampoo was the quickest on the uptake. Bowing to the newcomers and giving them a wide saccharine smile, she began her introduction. "Kushina is good friend of Shampoo's. Shampoo," she said pointing at herself before she pointed at the man standing next to her, "and Ryouga come visit from far away place to see her."

Ryouga looked at Shampoo in confusion. "What are you talking abo-"

The purple haired amazon promptly elbowed him, drawing a whuff in the process. She quickly turned back to the assembled crowd with an innocent smile.

The crowd's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I ask again, do you know these two, Kushina?"

Shampoo and Ryouga eyed her expectantly, asking her to vouch for them. Ranma was a bit torn. On one hand, there was Ryouga. On the other hand, Shampoo was here as well. "Uh..."

"Lock them up." the Hokage promptly said.

"Wait, I haven't said anything yet!" Ranma protested.

"You recognize them." the Hokage gruffly answered, "You've already revealed that much. It will be more productive if I have them interrogated for everything else."

He paused and turned to assess the uprooted trees and numerous craters that made up what used to be Training Area 14. "Kushina, I wish to speak with you. Follow me to my office."

Shampoo was just about to fight off the enclosing nin when Ranma gave her a quick look. One that promised that she'd bust them out once she was done with the old man.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Unfortunately, Ryouga couldn't wait that long.

A wall of Konoha's highest security prison complex suddenly exploded outwards with a tremendous BOOM!

"The prisoners are escaping!" An Uchiha shouted.

"When I find you Ran..." Ryouga roared loudly before turning a corner. The prison was soon rocked by a second explosion as a smaller figure with purple hair shot after the first escapee with a furious expression on her face.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"There is a reason why we discourage such destruction of our training grounds" the Third argued.

"I'm not going to restore it." Ranma shot back. "Heck, it's probably more challenging n-"

Someone slid the door open, interrupting the argument. "I'm very sorry Hokage-sama, but we've just received word that the recent detainees have broken out of prison. Several other key prisoners have taken advantage of the confusion to escape..." he paused before adding, "those that still could anyway."

"Wait here, I'm not finished with you." The Third ordered the redhead seated across from him before leaving his seat to oversee the recapture of the prisoners.

Ranma sat back and growled childishly as she thought about how long she'd be confined in this room. 'Ryouga! This is all your fault!' She silently raged.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ryouga froze midstep as a chill shot up his spine. Ranma had just stolen another of his lines, he just knew it!

He angrily raised his fist toward a daytime sky. "Ranm-!" Before he could finish, he found himself being lifted into the air. His brief betrayal of gravity ended with his head embedded in the earth.

"Next time wait for Shampoo!" the purple haired girl angrily shouted to the man who she had just piledriven into the earth.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Acknowledgements:

I think what Ozzallos is trying to imply in his reviews are that there are too many introductory filler chapters and no plot chapters. I've delayed a pair of filler chapters in favor of this filler. This chapter reshuffling will allow me to get to the plot chapters in one or two steps.

Now then, should I include the second part of this filler chapter and then the plot, or should I go to the plot first...hmm...


	12. Blast from the Past

_One of my best jokes was in this chapter. Unfortunately, I moved it to a later chapter._

∼ Entwined Symphony ∼  
by Tama Saga

I don't own Naruto or Ranma. The rights belong to the awesome Rumiko Takahashi and the less cool Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing the characters and the settings to make an amusing and interesting story.

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

**Chapter 11: Blast from the Past**

-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-∗-

-o-o-o-o-o-

There was a choked gurgle before his target collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

Swiping the bloodied kunai along the man's shirt before storing it away in the holster at his side, Minato surveyed the battleground before he decided that that had been the last one.

It was time to leave, before others arrived in search of the missing group. However...

...looking around, he selected an unconscious kunoichi before he carefully approached. A deft slice across her jugular vein was all that he needed to ensure she would never be able to report what happened.

Before the dying woman breathed her last, Minato was already standing next to the another unconscious nin, a shinobi this time. Repeating the same fatal operation on this nin, he quickly proceeded to the next one. That job was finished as cleanly and as efficiently as the last two.

He only had one body left. That of a black-haired man whose hair was tied in a pigtail.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma was forcefully wakened by a deluge of cold water. Shivering slightly, she blinked and struggled to regain her bearings.

Her eyes remained unfocused as the last moments of her memory soon returned to her. She had just knocked out her third opponent and had turned to leave the area when someone struck her from behind, knocking her unconscious.

She finally regained enough of her senses to look around. Scanning the area, she soon realized that none of the landmarks looked familiar, this wasn't where she had been fighting. Who had moved her?

She whirled around when she heard a near-silent breath. It was the stalker, and he had a strange black gardening tool pointed at her.

Irritation welled up within her as she she waited for him to make the first move. Already, her mind was subconsciously predicting her opponent's next few moves and readying the proper counters. When he tensed, she was ready.

And then she almost facefaulted when the stalker ordered her to go. He was waving the knife in a way that suggested that she was free to leave. It was too convenient.

"How do I know you're not gonna just stab me in the back?" she found herself asking. She found it hard to believe that he would just let her go after the near constant pursuit over the last few days.

"I do not wish to fight," he calmly said, pulling his knife back slightly but still sending signs that he was ready to attack at any moment.

Ranma's eyes narrowed at the other person. "You're up to something."

...

"What do you want?" Ranma demanded irritably. She was just as tense as the one across from her. It looked like the situation could degenerate into a fight at any moment.

...

Suppressing her baser instincts, Ranma sat down. "I ain't movin' from this spot until you tell me what you're up to."

The two waited in silence for several minutes before the stalker finally responded. "I will accompany you. Do not question why, or I will be forced to kill you."

If possible, the redhead's eyes narrowed even further. "No thanks."

"You misunderstand, that was not a request." was the cool response.

"Yeah? Well, I don't need a traveling companion." she hotly shot back.

"I do not wish to accompany you either." he said this as easily as one remarking about the weather.

That lack of feeling in his voice was really starting to bother her. "Then why? Why have you been chasing me?" she demanded.

"That information is classified." he had replied without an ounce of emotion. "Refrain from asking again or else."

The two stood in silence for several long moments before Ranma stopped glaring at the man.

"Che, whatever." she spat before a cheery grin appeared on her face. The expression was obviously fake. She pointed in one direction. "Okay. Since you don't want to follow me, I'll go this way," she pointed in the other direction, "and you go that way. Alright?"

The other teenager stared emotionlessly at her.

Straining to hold the grin on her face, she turned around and started to walk off. After several steps, she concentrated a little, casting her awareness out behind her. The results were as she had expected. He was following her.

"Damn!" Ranma cried loudly as she dashed off.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

- A month after their first visit, and still about a year from the present. -

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

Ranma looked up when he heard the closet door open. His eyes promptly bugged out when he saw a pair of people walk out.

"...Die!" he roared as he leapt from the tub and charged toward one of them. He felt a sadistic grin form on his face when Pig-boy turned to him with a look of shock on his ugly mug.

Right before he reached his target however, someone tackled him. There was two people that could have interfered at the moment, and one of them should be in the manager's office studying. That left the only other option.

"Shampoo! What are you doing?! He needs to die for what he's done!"

"Shampoo no let you," the purple haired girl growled from on top of him. He felt her apply pressure across his neck as she tried to pin him..

He struggled. "Get off!"

"You calm down-" Shampoo's breath hitched as Ranma bucked particularly hard and almost threw her off.

"Don't you get it! He has to die!"

Shampoo refused to give up. "Stop and listen!"

She was holding him back. He was so close and she was holding him back. "I didn't want to do this..." Ranma growled as he started to use his superior strength to push himself up. The next step was to throw off off the woman sitting on top of him. Step three was to remove pig-boy from this plane of existence.

He didn't expect that jab to his back that caused his arms to give out. When she struck another pressure point moments later and he lost all sensation in his arms and legs, he was rendered helpless. He could still talk though. "Damnit! Shampoo, whatever you just did, reverse it now. Or I'm gonna..."

"Shampoo no fix until Ra-Kushina listen!"

"Agh!" he cried as he struggled to move. But neither of his arms or legs were responding and Shampoo's weight made it difficult to worm toward Ryouga...not that he could do much in that situation.

Left with no other choice, he forced himself to relax. "Fine, I'm listening."

That was when Pig-boy stepped in front of him and crouched down.

Ranma promptly spit at him.

Ryouga slowly wiped the disgusting substance off of his cheek before he confronted his rival once again. "I'm..."

"What? I didn't hear you." Ranma spat out in a nasty tone of voice.

"I'm..."

"Stop mumbling," Ranma mocked, getting a perverse pleasure from seeing his hated foe squirm.

"I'm sorry, okay? Okay?!"

Ranma's mouth dropped and he stared blankly ahead for several seconds. Before anyone could say anything however, a furious rage seemed to envelop the pigtailed boy. "Do you think that's going to make this better?!" Ranma hysterically demanded.

"..."

"I've been stuck in this hell for 10 years!"

"..."

"I've been involved in a major war...fought demons...I've killed. Don't you get it?! I've killed! I'm not the same person that you once knew!" Ranma was practically frothing at the mouth, but a lone tear trailed down his face.

"..."

"Is your sorry going to make me forget?!" he demanded.

"..."

"Is it?!"

"..."

"Answer me!"

"I'm sorry."

That stopped him short. Ranma stared at the man...the man who had the gall to make worthless apologize. A minute passed before he finally glanced away, not able to stare at the other man any longer. Disgust, that's what he felt. "Che. Fine, whatever."

Silence descended upon the group for a moment before Ranma finally broke it. "Let me up Shampoo, I'm not going to kill him." he said in a tired voice.

The one sitting on top of him shifted. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Ranma replied tonelessly.

He felt Shampoo strike a point on his neck and feeling soon returned to his limbs again. When Shampoo got off of him, Ranma waited a moment for the prickly feeling roaming around his body to his disappear.

When he felt his right leg move under his command again, he promptly got up and booted Ryouga into the wall. "I still think you should die." he coldly said as the part-time pig slowly slid down the wall before he turned to face Shampoo.

"Aiyah!" He saw her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. "Ranma bigger than Shampoo remember." It was then that he realized that he was lacking something important. But before he could grab a towel, she had tackled him, taking the both of them down to the floor.

"Dammit Shampoo!" Ranma shouted before a rapid pattering of footsteps sounded from outside.

"I'm trying to study!" Naruto roared out as he shoved the door aside. He reared up and threw a pail of water.

Limbs tangled and unable to move, Ranma could only watch in horror as the cold water descended.

∗Splooosh∗

Ranma froze upon moving her limp red bangs from her eyes. She was mesmerized by the swaying lavender-tipped pink tail poking out from Shampoo's dress. Soon, the creature started to back out and she her apprehension started to grow. When it's head appeared, a small keening started to resound in her head as she finally matched what was in her sights to one of the deadliest creatures known to man.

"C-c-c-c-c-AIIEEEEEEE!" Ranma shrieked before she leapt up and...

...slammed facefirst into the wall.

Jumping back to her feet, she ran into it again before she started clawing at the wall in a frantic effort to put as much distance between her and the monster as possible. The plaster started to fall away in strips.

Naruto for his part was gaping at the scene. He had just seen someone other than his aunt change with cold water. Mechanically raising his hand, he pointed toward the Furo when the cat impatiently turned to him and gestured in ways that weren't possible for an ordinary cat.

-o-o-o-o-o-

After Shampoo had reverted to human form, changed, and grabbed Ryouga before he got lost; and Ranma had pulled on clothes...

...the three adults and 1 six-year-old met in the center of the living room.

"So who's the runt." Ryouga was the first to ask.

An outraged look appeared on Naruto's face. "Isn't it customary to introduce yourselves first," he demanded.

Ranma jumped in. "Oh uh, Naruto," she pointed at the purple-haired girl, "That's Shampoo."

Shampoo eyed Naruto strangely. The boy seemed to have Ranma on a leash. Having had a lot of experience with mind control in her younger days, she searched for the telltale signs. However, aside from Ranma's odd behavior however, she could find none.

Ranma noticed that Shampoo seemed a little distracted. The amazon normally had a cheerful welcome when confronted with a stranger. Deciding that it wasn't important, she pointed at the bandanna clad man, "and that's Pig-Bo-." she suddenly ducked and a large fist passed harmlessly overhead.

"The name's Ryouga." Ryouga coolly introduced himself, miffed that he had missed his target. "Now who're you." he demanded, glaring at Naruto.

She hated it when people looked at Naruto in that manner. Even if it wasn't the same, it was Pig-boy that was doing it. "I already told you, he's Naruto." Ranma's tone was dark and cold, but she forcibly restrained her more violent impulses because her son was in the room.

Ryouga was unafraid. In fact, he was a slight bit angry. "I want to know why you have a little kid in your home."

"I live here!" Naruto shouted up at the tall man.

A pair of eyes flickered to the blond kid for a brief instant before turning to Ranma, demanding an explanation. Their eyes promised pain if she gave the wrong answer.

"He's uhh...my son." Ranma meekly said to no one in particular.

One full second passed...

...and then Ranma let out a high-pitched squawk as a pair of enraged martial artists lunged at her.

Ryouga soon had the redhead suspended by the collar of her shirt. "We were searching heaven and hell for you, and you went and got married?!" He started to shake her angrily.

Shampoo's words were far less coherent, sounding more like grunts than anything else. She was too busy trying to get Ryouga out of the way so that she could choke the life out of the redhead with her own two hands.

"No...W-Wron" Ranma struggled to say as she started to feel dizzy from all the back and forth motion that her head was experiencing.

Ryouga paused. "What?"

"You've got it all wrong." She gasped out.

"Kaasan isn't married." Naruto had an odd look on his face as he said this.

Both pairs of eyes turned to the brat. "Kaasan is my aunt!"

Ranma let out a yelp as she was dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

"Oh."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Soon after, Naruto left for his room without giving a reason. Without Ranma's son to occupy their attention, an awkward atmosphere had descended upon the three adults.

It probably wasn't the best time to stand around, so Ranma sat on one of the couches. Shampoo immediately plopped herself right next to the redhead without asking. That left Ryouga to occupy the other couch.

If anything, the awkward atmosphere seemed to worsen as Ranma alternated between shooting Ryouga hateful glares and regarding Shampoo with dismay.

"You return with us, yes?" Shampoo finally cooed out as she hung heavily off of the redhead. "Everyone will be so happy to see you alive."

Ranma suddenly started to struggle. "Will you let go already, Shampoo?" She asked uncomfortably.

"Why you avoiding the question?" The purple-haired girl cutely asked.

"What?!" Ranma cried in outraged. "I ain't avoiding anything!"

"You-" Ryouga started to point out.

"You shut up," Ranma growled angrily, shutting up the eternally lost boy.

"Then why don't you want to return?" Shampoo asked before her eye flickered to a yellow-haired boy that had just entered the room. "Is it because of him?"

Ranma vehemently shook her head when she realized who Shampoo was pointing at. "...no! Of course not!"

A strange look passed over Naruto's face in that instant. It disappeared as quickly as it came and he continued on his way. Of the three, only Shampoo had noticed it. She mentally filed away this tidbit of information before returning her attention to Ranma once again.

"So you no can return yet." Shampoo contemplatively said before she eyed the redhead curiously, "Shampoo still not understand. It's easy, come with us and we go back. You already say that he," she looked at the boy that was standing before the front door, "not keep you here."

Ranma's eyes fell on Ryouga. "I ain't lettin pig-boy lead. He got me here last time, I don't trust him not to do it again."

"..." The room stayed quiet for a brief moment.

"Shampoo understand," the amazon finally said as she got off of Ranma, stood up, and stretched. There was a strange lilt in her voice as she said this, as if she did not fully believe the redhead's excuse. "Maybe trust pig-man more next time."

"Please don't call me that," Ryouga quietly said in a pained voice.

"I'll call you whatever I want." Ranma snapped before an awkward silence descended upon the three once again.

Before Ranma could ask how everyone was doing, Naruto chose that moment to interrupt.

"We have ninjas at the door." he called out while he stood next to the open doorway. A small group of black-clad figures stood before the doorframe.

Ranma jumped from the couch, a panicked look on her face. "Quick, get out of here...I'll..." her voice died when she noticed the team of ANBU assembled in the middle of the room.

"...hold them off. Aren't you guys supposed to wait until someone invites you in?" she demanded exasperatedly.

The Third appeared in the open doorway. "I'd like to see you in my office, Kushina." It was obvious that he wasn't happy.

"Can it wait until tomorrow?" Of course it couldn't, but it was worth a try.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Shampoo and Ryouga hadn't been imprisoned for long when a wall blew outwards, scattering large shards of rock everywhere throughout the prison courtyard..

While it's interesting how the purple-haired prisoner was escaping again in a manner similar to last time, the second even-larger explosion was far more phenomenal.

Standing outside of the gaping hole with a wide-eyed expression on her face, Shampoo soon realized that her travelling partner of many years still had his arms tied tightly to his body.

Her surprise quickly turned to excitement as understanding struck her. She bounced up and down happily. "Aiyah! Ryouga learn to use Bakusai Tenketsu with head. It great achievement for Amazons."

"Just untie me Shampoo!" Ryouga growled at her, the chains clanking loudly as he fidgeted a little.

Annoyed at his less-than-cheery behavior, Shampoo turned away. "No see why Pig-boy can't break out by self." she sniffed.

Ryouga winced...he would...

...if something pointy wasn't digging in a sensitive spot.

-o-o-o-o-o-

A nin entered the office.

"Sir, the recent detainees have somehow escaped again. All of those held in cell block E have escaped as well."

"Stay in the office." the Third said in a frustrated tone of voice as he left the office.

"Dammit pigboy," Ranma raged quietly before she started searching around the room for an unguarded escape route. No way was she going to stay in here for another three hours.


End file.
